Wings for Those Caught in the Maelstrom
by Kointoss
Summary: A girl from Naruto past comes back to Konoha bringing with her several questions to both Naruto and the rest of the rookie nine... Adopted from awalkingparadox
1. Leaves on the Water

**Readers:**

I've adopted this story from **awalkingparadox**. It is her brainchild that she lost interest in/ ran out of ideas for. I'm actually putting my other projects on hold to finish this one. Hopefully I can do this story justice and take it to new heights.

**Chapter 1 **

**The leaves on the Water**

In the front of the gates of Konoha stood a girl who, by her size couldn't have been more than twelve years old. Standing beside her was an obliviously older and larger male, not far behind them was a caravan where the sounds of many people and animals slept.

"Are you sure you want to leave?" the man said to the girl.

"Hai, there is someone I left behind here that I need to see again" she replied.

"How long are you going to stay?"

"… I'm not leaving again…" The man's shoulders sagged before he replied.

"So this is good bye forever?"

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be; everyone's going to miss you, but I think they will understand. It was fun performing with you, and my only wish is for you to stay alive since I know it's impossible to ask you to stay out of trouble." She looked at him questionably and he sighed before continuing, "I've heard rumors that now is not the best time for the Hidden Villages, that there's an organization or something that's been attacking village after village and getting away with it. Be careful, I don't want to hear that you died because you pissed off the wrong person."

"Aww, do you really have so little faith in me?" he stared at her until she gave a nervous chuckle, "Okay… I'll try my best, but no promises."

"Well then Sora, sayonara." He turned around and went back to the caravan. She was faintly aware of the fake name that she had come accustomed to as she watched as he cracked his whip and sent his horses off into a trot. She kept watching until the caravan left her sight.

"Sayonara, Carlos." She turned back to the gates and watched as they opened at the same time the sun rose, almost as if welcoming the rising sun. She walked up to the ninjas posted by the gate and showed them her traveling papers as well as proof of identification. She watched as the one with a needle in his mouth checked her papers and wondered why the other was wearing bandages when he wasn't hurt.

The one with the needle spoke jolting her out of her musing, "So why are you traveling to Konoha?"

"I made a promise with someone and I came to fulfill it. Besides, I left something very important here and I need to get it back."

"A promise, huh? Well everything seems in order here so you may pass." He handed back her papers and waved her through. She took them and walked through the gate and stared at the city that was sprawled out in front of her. She raised her head to stare at the five heads now carved into the mountain side, remembering voices and actions of a boy she had not seen in a very long time.

"It has been a long time, eh, Naruto?" she asked no one in particular

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Naruto had been having a very good dream. A dream about ramen and a certain pink haired kunoichi. The only problem was that there was a very loud and annoying noise that was interrupting it; worse yet, it wouldn't stop. Realizing that lying there wasn't going to make it stop, he sat up and glared at his alarm before the time sunk in his half awake mind. Eyes growing comically large he bolted up right from his bed and attempted to run to his bathroom but tripped and fell when his foot caught on his dirty laundry. Cursing loudly, Naruto picked himself up and ran around in a blur until he was at his door stuffing dry ramen in his mouth without knowing how he got there. With a loud curse, he threw himself of the railing and to the closest roof top. There was no way in hell that he would be later than Kakashi-sensei.

-------------------

Sasuke opened one of his coal black eyes and scanned the clearing him and his team usually met. To his right was Sakura who had arrived some ten minutes after he did, and Naruto was nowhere to be seen, which was weird since he normally showed up around the same time as Sakura. He heard some sort of yelling in the distance that was rapidly getting louder, at the same time he noticed that his sensei was strolling down the bridge while his team mate was coming from the North running in an almost comical manner.

He watched with some amusement as Naruto tripped and fell with a loud thud right as he had reached him landing face first. He couldn't let such a fine opportunity pass.

"Smooth, Dobe." He said before smirking.

"Oi, shut up Teme! I meant to do that!"

"If you meant to do that than either I failed as a teacher, or you have some weird sense of humor."

Kakashi drawled out.

"Kakashi-sensei you're late!" yelled Naruto, leaping up and pointing an accusatory finger at his teacher..

"Like you're one to say anything Naruto! You where almost as late as Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled back at him. Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes knowing that Naruto would waste a good deal of time trying to prove that he wasn't late.

_Time you could be spending on getting stronger so you can finally kill that bastard._ Sasuke frowned and mentally shook his head. He was starting to wonder where that voice was coming from.

--------

Today was not a good day, first he had almost been as late as Kakashi-sensei, then Sasuke-teme had completely trashed him during training, and now Sakura-chan kept going on and on how cool "Sasuke-kun" was. With a sigh, he followed his Sensei back into town, when he heard someone yell "Does anyone know where Uzumaki Naruto is?"

-------

Sasuke mentally sighed as he tuned out Sakura high pitched squeaks while she continued to "complement" him for beating the Dobe. As if any one couldn't beat the Dobe.

_Neji couldn't beat him, Gaara couldn't beat him, and you couldn't beat Gaara…_

_Shut up._ he told the voice in his head. _It must have been some kind of fluke or something…_

_Right so being able to summon, and not just summon, but summon a boss animal is just some sort of fluke….. _the disembodied voice responded.

Before he could tell off the voice in his head he heard a girl yell, "Does anyone know where Uzumaki Naruto is?"

He looked up to see a girl around their age wearing a simple light blue dress that cut off around her knees and a pairs of light blue ballet slippers marking her as a non-shinobi. She had blazing red hair that fell in curls to her mid-back and deep oceanic blue eyes. Before he could respond, Naruto did it for him, just not in the way he expected him to:

* * *

"Umi nee-chan!" with loud cry Naruto jumped into a flying hug which knocked both Naruto and "Umi nee-chan" down and did something that he had never thought Naruto would do. He started to cry, no he was wailing.

**Translations:**

**hai - yes**

**sayonara - good bye**

**Dobe - dead last/ dropout **

**teme - bastard**

**chan - honorific usual meant for girls but can be used for anything 'cute'**

**kun - another honorific meant for boys bet can be used for boy-ish people**

**sensei - teacher, mentor, or expert in a certain field**

**nee-chan - older sister**

**umi - ocean**


	2. Friends meet over Ramen Bowls

**Chapter 2 – Friends Meet Over Ramen Bowls**

The members of Team Seven where all in different states of shock. Sure, Naruto had been gaining a reputation of the most surprising ninja ever. Hell, even Kakashi had admitted back in the Land of Waves, but they never thought that they would see Naruto fling himself into the arms of some unknown girl, call her 'nee-chan,' and then proceed to cry his eyes out while still in the arms of Said girl; nor did they expect her reaction when she promptly punched him in the head and then kicked him away.

Kakashi was surprised and slightly amused. Sasuke had simply raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. Sakura was shocked into silence and her mouth hanging open.

The newcomer, who was named "Umi nee-chan" by Naruto, looked up and seemed to realize that there were in fact other people, laughed sheepishly and scratch the back of her head that reminded them all of a very Naruto-ish move.

---------------------------

_Well damn…. I've been strolling through the village for three hours and still no sign of Naruto, where the hell is he? _Umi thought to herself as she walked past another shop, this one seemed to be selling dango… and was that lady wearing nothing but fish net? _Wait she had one of those head band thingamajigs, did that mean she was a ninja? Didn't Naruto want to become a ninja? Maybe she has some information on Naruto. Well might as well give it a shot_ She mused.

"Oi, you, Fish-net Lady do you know where Uzumaki Naruto is?"

"Who the hell are you calling "Fish net lady" you damn brat!" yelled the dango eating lady.

"Would you like it better if I called you "Dango Lady" instead?"

"Hell no! My name's Mitarashi Anko, and if you don't beat it soon it'll be the last name you ever hear! Now scat you god-damn brat."

"No, not until you tell me where Uzumaki Naruto is!"

"I'm not telling you a damn thing, now leave." This left Umi with only one option left, for all she knows every ninja could be just as crazy or worse than this one, so it came down to her only option… bribe the information out of her.

"If I buy you twenty sticks of dango will you tell me about Uzumaki Naruto?" Umi watched as 'the crazy fish net, dango eating lady' as she dubbed her, struggle with herself before she started drooling and got her answer.

"Make it thirty, and we got a deal." Umi quickly nodded and then said, "I won't buy them until after you tell me where Uzumaki Naruto is."

"What? Oh hell no, you're going to buy me the dango first and then I'll tell you, I don't want you running off as soon as I tell you where he's at." Umi snorted.

"Well I don't want you running off as soon as I buy the dango and besides you're a ninja and if you couldn't catch me who's a civilian then you're one terrible ninja."

"You got a point there…. Fine I'll tell you. Right now he's probably waiting at the bridge in the west side of Konoha. If he's not there then he's probably at training grounds thirteen or Ichiraku's. Now go buy me my dango." She snapped. Umi rolled her eyes before she went and bought the thirty dango she had promised.

After wandering around for about three hours heading in the general west area, Umi found herself completely lost. Swearing to herself she stomped trough a few bushes trying to vent her frustration on the nearby vegetation when she heard the sound of running water. Knowing that it could possibly mean a river, which meant a bridge, she hastened her pace and found herself standing in front of a wide but shallow river, not sure which way the bridge is she decided to follow it up stream where another hour later she found the bridge, but no Naruto. Umi let out a very frustrated scream when she then noticed a very clear path that was coming from the direction she had come from.

Umi sighed. Well if he wasn't here then he was at this training ground place, it took Umi all of three minutes to figure out that she didn't have a clue where that was, when she did she screamed again and then proceeded to punch the nearest tree again and again and again………

After getting thoroughly beaten by the tree (don't ask how) she started her trek to find Naruto again. _Kuso I swear when I do find Naruto I'm going out to beat the living shit of him._ After another hour and a half, she realized that it was now around two in the afternoon and she had still not seen Naruto and she hadn't eaten anything, _Kuso, kuso, kuso, kuso, kuso, damn it Naruto when I find you I am soooo going to make you pay my lunch tab…._ With her thoughts growing ever darker she yet out a frustrated sigh before yelling out, "Does anyone know where Uzumaki Naruto is?" She didn't expect to get an answer, so imagine her when she was tackled to the ground by the very same person who had been the cause of all her troubles to begin with, when said person smell strongly of sweat and dirt, was incredibly dirty, and sobbing all over you. So she acted without thinking and before she realized what had happened, her fist was to his head and she was kicking him away, it was then that she realized that there were other people watching and realized that said people were ninjas and probably his team mates as well. _Oh shit, well Naruto won't let them kill me before we finish our promise right?_ nervous she raised her hand and scratch the back of her head, a habit she picked up from Naruto.

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Sasuke was surprised, very surprised, not that he let it show though. Here was his team mate, his rival, flinging himself into the arms of an unknown girl bawling his eyes out only to get punched in the head and kicked to the side by the very same girl. He watched as the girl looked up at them and then laughed nervously while scratching the back of her head in a very Naruto-ish way before coughing and turning to look at them fully.

"Ha ha ha…. Um, well, my name's Umiko, who the hell are you?" She asked.

"Hatake Kakashi, Naruto's teacher." Kakashi said as he flipped another page in his book

"Haruno Sakura, his team mate." Sakura added after getting over her shock.

"Uchiha Sasuke." That was all she needed to know.

"Ano…Umiko-san, why did Naruto call you nee-chan? And why where you looking for him?" Sakura asked, secretly both Kakashi and Sasuke wanted to know but just didn't want to ask.

"Oh… um well… that's kind of…… it's a himitsu…." She floundered while looking toward Naruto, who was just getting up, for help. If Sasuke wasn't interested before, he was now as was Sakura and Kakashi.

"Well Um...It's okay if you don't want to tell us, but can you tell us why Naruto started crying when he saw you?" Sakura asked annoyed with the answer she had gotten.

"Um… no idea really…" she trailed off looking just as confused as the rest of team seven was. Before

anyone could ask her anything else Naruto jumped up and started yelling.

"What the hell do you mean you have no idea? Do you know what I felt when you suddenly disappeared after we made… our….promise….."Now Naruto was blushing beet red and so was Umiko when she suddenly slapped him on the arm.

"Baka, you weren't supposed to tell them."She hissed to him, trying and failing to hide her embarrassment. Umiko-san how long have you been here?" Sakura asked trying to ease the tension that they had placed themselves into. This question seemed to be the wrong one to ask when Umiko suddenly turned red again and promptly started to smack Naruto on the head again and again and again.

"Itai! What the hell! Why the hell are you hitting me?" Naruto yelled as he tried to avoid Umiko oncoming hands.

"Because of you, Baka, I've been wondering around the village for hours looking for you and I haven't had anything eat yet!" She snapped at him.

"That wasn't my fault! I bet that you just got lost. In fact, I'd bet that you were even given directions and still got lost."

"Nani! Oh you are so gonna get it!"

"Maa maa, now why don't we all calm down and get something to eat okay?" Kakashi intervened not wanting to piss off Naruto old friend ever more.

"After all, it is lunch now, so let's go somewhere to eat, well since Umiko just got here, let's yet her pick, ne?"

"Okay fine……. Hey Naruto is Ichiraku's still open?"

"Hell yeah it is!"

"Really? Great I haven't had any decent ramen since I left Konoha, let's go there right now!"

_Great_ Sasuke thought _another ramen fanatic._ He simply rolled his eyes and followed his team and the strange new girl down a very familiar path. Soon the doors to Ichiraku's were standing in front of them and Naruto as usual barged right in.

"Hey Teuchi ji-san, give me three bowls of pork ramen!"

"Yeah, and give me three bowls of my special spicy chicken ramen!"

"Oh, is that you Umiko?" Teuchi replied with shock almost dropping the bowl in his hands.

"You better believe it old man. I hope you still know how to make my ramen."

"Of course I do! Hey Ayame, bring out the red pepper, hot sauce, and that other special pepper!"

"Eh? We only use that for Umiko-chan's order papa." Ayame said while gathering the ingredients.

"Hiya Ayame-chan, did you forget the sound of my voice?" Umiko piped up. Ayame let out a small

shriek that was both surprised and happy before hastening to follow her father's orders.

"What would the rest of you like to have?" Teuchi asked with a broad grin. Kakashi ordered a bowl of shrimp ramen, Sakura got some beef, while Sasuke got vegetable ramen. Sasuke looked over to the Umiko and decided that even though she wasn't a ninja she obviously had training of some kind, if the lean muscles she had was anything to go by. He also decided that she wasn't anybody of interest besides her relationship to Naruto and dismissed her in favor of thinking up new strategies to beat his brother with.

About three minutes later their ramen had arrived and everyone but Naruto was staring at Umiko's order. It was a steamy bowl of glowing red broth, noodles, and pieces of chicken, and that was it. There was no vegetable; no other topping besides the chicken and it was glowing! They could practically taste the red pepper from where they were sitting.

"Umm….. Are you really going to eat that?" Sakura asked.

"Of course! I wouldn't have ordered it otherwise, I love spicy food!" Umiko said happily as she hurriedly broke apart her chopsticks and rubbed them together. So much to the ninja present horror she dug into her food with as much enthusiasm as Naruto did.

About half way through their (Naruto and Umiko, everyone else had already finished) meal, Sakura asked the question that had been on all of their minds since Umiko had shown up. "Sooo…. How do you know Naruto?" Umiko stopped eating and looked at Naruto who had stopped as well before sighing.

"That is a long story."

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**Translations:**

**Kuso= damn it**

**Ano= umm, said when someone has nothing left to say and is trying to fill space**

**Himitsu= secret**

**Itai= ouch**

**Baka= idiot**

**Nani= what**

**Ji-san= sort of like uncle**


	3. Of Whirlpools and Promises

**Chapter 3 – of Whirlpools and Promises**

Umiko was enjoying herself very much. She had finally, after hours of searching, found Naruto and was now eating one of her favorite foods, spicy chicken ramen made by Teuchi-san himself. She could tell that the rest of Naruto's team was curious about her and most likely what relationship she had with Naruto. _Well no surprise there, a lot of people think they know him just because they know his favorite food is ramen._ Umiko thought dryly to herself. She didn't really like the rest of Naruto's team, even if she wouldn't tell him that.

First there was the Uchiha, the entire way here he had only responded with, "dobe," or an, "hm" or worst yet, a glare. There was no denying the fact that he was very good looking, or as she would say, "pretty as a baby chick" which matched him perfectly with that duck butt hair of his, but he had the emotional capabilities of a brick.

Then there was Naruto's female teammate, a Haruno. Does she really have pink hair or did she dye it? If she did, why in the seven hells did she? Umiko might not have known much about ninjas, but weren't they suppose to blend into the shadows? Wouldn't that pink hair make it impossible to blend in anywhere? Then there was the fact that Sakura was a Sasuke fan girl. On the way here, Umiko had seen her call Naruto a 'baka' at least twelve times because Sasuke disagreed with him, hit Naruto at least five for calling Sasuke a 'teme', and attempted to gain the raven's attention at least twenty times. Then again she might just want to have talked to him about Naruto strange new 'nee-chan' and try to get his help to figure just what their relationship was. If that was the reason then it wasn't so bad since it meant that she was curious about her other team mate instead of only thinking about one.

Finally there was Kakashi. Kakashi was a weird one, since Umiko met him, he had his head buried in that smutty book of his, and even though it seemed that he was absorbed in his book, she could tell that he was constantly scanning their surroundings. She wasn't really sure what he was looking for when he did this but she did know that his eye had come to rest on her more than once and was pretty sure that he was also interested in her relationship to Naruto.

She didn't tell Naruto what she thought about his team because she could tell that even though Naruto didn't mean much to them, they meant a lot to him. Just as she was about to dig into her fifth bowl of ramen (Naruto was on his seventh) she heard Sakura speak up.

"Sooo……How do you know Naruto?"

Naruto looked up from the bowl that he was eating from and locked eyes with his nee-chan who looked back at him with a mischievous gleam in her eye. Naruto knew that his nee-chan didn't like his team very much; sure she didn't say anything but that was the very reason why Naruto knew that she didn't like them. So long as Umiko liked them even a little bit she would have said something about them.

"That is a long story." Umiko answered.

Naruto hoped that whatever she was planning wasn't too bad, after she was a worse prankster then he was.

"……………" Kakashi flipped a page in his book.

"…………………"Sasuke snorted and then took a sip of his tea.

"…………………………" Sakura started drumming her fingers.

Ten seconds later Naruto caught on to what his nee-chan was doing and was trying his best not to burst out laughing while Umiko calmly took a sip of her tea. Then Sakura exploded and Naruto couldn't help but fall over laughing.

-------------------

Sakura waited while Naruto strange new nee-chan sat there in silence trying to, what she thought, figure out where to begin. She was distantly aware that Kakashi-sensei had just turned a page in his book and waited patiently for the other girl to begin.

Some moments later she heard Sasuke snort but wasn't sure as to why. It was taking her a while to figure out where to begin. Sakura started to drum her fingers.

_**Sharrano! What the hell is taking her so long?**_ yelled Inner-Sakura.

_Maa. I'm sure that it must be complicated or something, after all, Naruto did burst into tears when she showed up…_ Sakura told her inner-self that would have worked to calm her down if it weren't for the fact that Naruto was trying desperately to not laugh. As more time passed Sakura irritation grew even more and when she saw Umiko calmly sip her tea she snapped. "Well what the hell happened between the two of you?" she yelled. At that moment Naruto fell over laughing.

-----------------

Sasuke twitched when he heard Sakura yell and quickly looked over at Umiko. He figured that she planned on annoying the Fan girl due to Umiko's smirk, but then she frowned when Sakura kicked Naruto for laughing. _So she likes the Dobe, but not us._ Sasuke thought to himself. Sasuke couldn't help but mentally sigh. The two of them were so similar. They both liked ramen and they both liked pulling pranks, but the difference was that Umiko new to him, so he decided to play it cool until he could figure out more about her.

"Was I supposed to answer that question?" Umiko asked with a frown.

"Of course! I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know!" Sakura yelled.

"Well I met him on his fifth birthday, and I defended him from a bunch of over-sized bullies. After that I found out it was his birthday so I treated him to some of Teuchi-san's ramen. After that he started calling me nee-chan and wouldn't leave me alone so we sort of just became family." Sasuke noticed that Naruto had flinched when she mentioned the 'over-sized bullies' and briefly wondered what that was about when Naruto asked her in a hard voice,

"Why did you leave?"

------------------------

Naruto picked himself off the ground just in time to hear Umiko response to Sakura.

"Well I meet him on his fifth birthday……"

_Die demon!_

_You killed my brother!_

_You don't deserve to live!_

_How dare you try to come to the festival!_

"……and I defended him from a bunch of over-sized bullies……"

_I'll teach you what it means to show your ugly face here!_

_You god damn brat. You should just die!_

_Hey! What the hell are you doing! Stop or I'll scream!_

"……After that I found out it was his birthday so I treated him to some of Teuchi-san's ramen. After that he started calling me nee-chan and wouldn't leave me alone so we sort of just became family."

Naruto couldn't help but flinch when he remembered what happened on his fifth birthday but felt happy when she called him family. As quickly as that happiness came it went, if she considered him family then why had she left? An emptiness that Naruto thought he filled up opened again and he knew that he just had to find out why she left.

"Why did you leave?" He asked not noticing how hard his voice had become. Umiko looked at him with a slightly surprised look on her face which quickly melted into a slightly hurt one before answering.

"Family problems." She murmured quietly not looking at Naruto. _Family problems? But she can't have any…_

"Liar, you can't have family problems when you're an orphan." He said coldly and saw her flinch confirming in his mind that she had lied to him. He watched as she took a deep breath before responding.

"I left because I heard that I might have a still living relative and I had to leave because my parents weren't from Konoha to begin with, so my only chance at find him was to go back to my parent's hometown."

Naruto now felt guilty but didn't know what to say. Then he thought that if she was gone for five years then she must have been with this relative of hers meaning that she still had a real family, a sudden sad feeling stuck itself to the bottom of his stomach. Was she going to disappear again like she did so long ago?

"So did you find your relative?" Naruto asked feeling slightly sick.

"Nope, when I got there the entire town was in complete ruins, but then again my mom did tell me that her hometown was destroyed ten years before I was born." Umiko replied with a carefree grin. Naruto was instantly relived but then wondered what she had been doing the past five years if she wasn't with her relative, before he could think about this some more Kakashi interrupted.

"Ah it's a shame that you didn't learn anything, what town did you go to anyway?" he asked without looking up from his book.

"I did learn something, I learned that my Otou-san name ended with a 'to' and that he wasn't from the same clan that my mother was. I went to Whirlpool by the way." Naruto noticed that his sensei's hand clenched a little tighter around his book, but didn't give it much thought and voiced his next question.

"If you didn't spend the last five years with you relative, then where were you?"

"I was going on one wild goose chase after another. Sure, a lot of the documents in Whirlpool were destroyed, but I did get a few hints from what was there. So I traveled from place to place trying to find my relative and got so absorbed in trying to find him I kind of forgot about you. That was until I saw 'it'."

"'It'?"Sasuke voiced out, deciding to join in the conversation.

"Yeah 'it'. The Great Naruto Bridge in the Land of Waves. When I saw it I realized how long I've been from Konoha and knew I had to come back right away. I needed to see if our promise still stands." Whatever pain Naruto felt at being forgotten was quickly replaced by the awe he felt at finding out he had a bridge named after him.

"Naruto said that you disappeared after making a promise, what was it?" Sasuke asked with only a small hint of curiosity.

Naruto face flushed crimson as he remembered their promise at the same time Umiko face flared up as well. Naruto had no clue what to say. On one hand he was happy that Umiko stilled remembered their promise, on the other hand he wasn't too sure if he still wanted to keep that promise.

"Th-that's a secret!" Umiko blurted out. Naruto noticed the devilish look on all of his team mate faces and knew that this would only end badly. He started to frantically look for a way out when he heard Umiko say something completely wrong. "Fine I'll tell you." Horror filled Naruto, there was no way that he could tell his team of their promise.

"Matte! Don't you dare tell them our secret." He yelled while still trying to find a way out.

"I have no choice Naruto, I've got to tell them"

"No! Don't you dare…" he lunged forward to stop her from saying anything but Sasuke had jumped in front of him and stopped him from getting any closer.

"I promised to marry Naruto."

"……tell them………" Naruto felt embarrassment fill his entire core as a stunned silence over his team.

Translations:

Otou-san= dad

Matte= wait


	4. The Unbreakable Vow

**Chapter 4**

**The Unbreakable Vow**

A stunned and slightly awkward silence fell over the shop. Everybody was shocked including Teuchi and Ayame, since neither of them knew about Umiko and Naruto's promise to each other. Naruto was blushing beat red and staring a hole into the floor. Sasuke stood frozen with his eyes opened wider as the only thing showing his shock. Sakura had fallen out of her seat and was now sitting on the floor with her mouth wide open, but Kakashi, Kakashi had been so shocked that he had dropped his Icha Icha and hadn't even bother to pick it up. Umiko looked the most calm of the group and was only blushing slightly. The silence seemed to stretch on forever, you could have heard a pin drop. Then Naruto opened his mouth and chaos ensued.

-------

Umiko wasn't entirely too sure how telling Naruto's teammates their promise would have effect them but silence wasn't it. Naruto was blushing beat red and as much as she didn't want to admit it he looked kind of cute. His teammate, the Uchiha was staring and Haruno was sitting on the floor with her mouth wide open. His sensei had dropped his book and was staring at her, oddly enough it seemed like his wasn't seeing her but more like remembering something else. Umiko noticed that Naruto was the first to recover and prepared herself from the unavoidable and deafening outburst that was coming, and boy was it a deafening. She vaguely saw both Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan leave the shop with their hands over their ears.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU TELL THEM?!" he screamed at her. It seemed as if Naruto's yell had shocked all of his teammates back to action because, before she could think of an answer they all started yelling (okay maybe not Sasuke and Kakashi but you get the point.)

"What the hell do you mean marry!?"

"Why would you marry the Dobe?"

"When did you make this promise?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"When are you getting married?"

"Are you planning on getting married now?"

Umiko was really starting to get really pissed off. First her ears were still ringing from Naruto earlier yell, second, she was getting a huge headache from said yell and his teammates asking all these questions were only making it worse; and third, Naruto team mates were staring at her like she had grown a second head.

"Shut the fuck up!" She roared out and was slightly amused when they were shocked into silence. She took a deep breath and wondered briefly if all of Naruto friends were going to react like this (assuming that he has friends….she really hoped he did) before continuing.

"Now, one at a time please."

"Why the hell did you tell them?!" No guessing who that was. She mentally sighed to herself but knew that he wouldn't get it unless she explained it to him.

"I had no choice but to tell them because there was no way that I could have out run them. Or did you forget that I'm a civilian and most likely wouldn't be able to out run a ninja, never mind your Jounin sensei." She watched as his shoulders slumped as her logic got to him and mentally prepared herself for the onslaught of questions that she had a feeling that she was going to have to answer. She didn't really mind answering their questions, but she wasn't too sure what she could, and couldn't tell them; she wasn't entirely too sure how close they were to Naruto.

"Ja, when did you make this promise?" Sakura asked her curiosity showing on her face.

"We made it shortly after his seventh birthday."

"Alright, what exactly is this promise?" Kakashi asked after picking up his Icha Icha. _Smart man he's looking for every angle of this promise. _What for was beyond Umiko but she saw no problem in telling him.

"We promised that when we both reached our goals we would become a real family."

"Naruto hasn't reached his goal, he's not Hokage." Sakura stated looking a little confused.

"Whoever said that was his goal?" Umiko responded

"Well if that's not his goal, what is then? And how do you know if he reached his goal?" Sasuke asked

"I know because we made an unbreakable vow." Umiko knew that she hadn't answered the Uchiha's question, but she didn't care. She watched slightly surprised when Kakashi dropped his book again.

"You know what an unbreakable vow is then?"

"I've only heard of it in rumors but I know what they are."

"What are they sensei?" Sakura asked turning to Kakashi.

"An unbreakable vow is exactly as it name suggests; an unbreakable vow. If either one of them broke the vow they would both die." Kakashi explained while running a hand through his hair while picking up his book again.

Sakura looked shocked again and even Sasuke seemed stunned. Sasuke was the first to recover. "That doesn't explain how you would know if the Dobe had achieved his goal."

"Actually it does, when one makes an unbreakable vow they are bound by it no matter what. So when one person completes their part of the vow the other will be able to feel it." Surprisingly Naruto was the one to answer that question.

"Well what was his goal anyway?" Sakura asked. Umiko looked at Naruto who was looking back; she waited knowing that this was something she could only tell if he said it was okay. Naruto stared at her for a very long time before glancing at his teammates his gaze staying on Sasuke the longest before nodding.

"Naruto's goal was to find out why the village hated him and become strong enough to protect me from them." Umiko watched as understanding seemed to dawn on them and realized that as Naruto team they must have known a few things about Naruto. Still she wondered just how much they knew about him and how much they didn't.

"Well if Naruto reached his goal, then what about you?" Sakura asked, Umiko was finding out quickly that Sakura was the conversationalist of the group and decided to answer.

"My goal is still very far away, so I don't think that I'll tell you that just yet." Sakura looked like she was going to demand an answer when Sasuke intervened.

"Why does the village hate the Dobe?" everybody turned to look at Sasuke. "Well you said that it was part of his vow and the fact that you're here means that he know right?"

_That's right, if Naruto fulfilled his part of the vow then it would mean that he knew why he was hated by the village. _Umiko almost smacked herself for not realizing that in the first place. "Naruto, why _does_ the village hate you?" she asked.

Naruto stared at them as his face rapidly drained of color, the only one who didn't look curious was Kakashi who had gone back to reading his book. He looked at them, then looked away and was now looking for a way out again, Umiko decided to take action.

"Naruto, please tell us… if not us then please at least tell me… onegai Naru-kun." Umiko knew she was playing dirty with her pet name for Naruto but she really wanted to know why he was as hated as he was. Whether Konoha would survive or not depended on the answer. Naruto looked at Umiko and his shoulders slumped before he turned to look at Kakashi who only shrugged before giving a loud sigh and answering.

"We're going to need to go see baa-chan." He turned around and walked out of the shop leaving behind three very confused teenagers and one slightly worried adult.

----------------

Naruto felt like killing Sasuke; he just had to bring that up didn't he? Naruto really didn't want to tell Umiko, or anyone for that matter, about Fuzzy. He wouldn't know what to do if she rejected him as well.

"Naruto, please tell us… if not us then please at least tell me… onegai Naru-kun." Umiko whispered.

Shimatta, Naruto felt trapped. No one had called him Naru-kun except her and when she said it, it brought back so many happy memories he was starting to feel guilty for trying to hide it from her. His panicked mind calmed down a bit and he turned to his sensei to see what he had to say about this. Kakashi merely shrugged and Naruto stomach plummeted, with a sigh he realized that he was not going to get out of this.

"We're going to need to see baa-chan."

----------

Sasuke was starting to get really confused. Then again everything about Naruto was confusing. Every time Sasuke thought that he knew Naruto, something came up that completely changed his opinion of him.

Like finding out that the dobe was engaged to some unknown girl.

Like finding out that the engagement was made via unbreakable vow.

Like finding out that breaking the unbreakable vow would result in death.

Like finding out that the dobe had apparently become strong enough to protect said unknown girl.

_Then again he did beat Gaara._

_**Who you couldn't beat.**_

_Shut up._ That voice in his head was really starting to piss him off and his shoulder was starting to hurt again. Sasuke was starting to realize just how little he knew about the Dobe and it was frustrating him to no end.

_He was supposed to be the ramen loving, Hokage wannabe, no talent idiot._

_**Yet your brother went after him instead of you, he even said that he wasn't interested in you.**_

_Shut up! _Sasuke was realizing that he really hated that voice in his head. Even if it gave him a whole lot of power it left him completely drained. Not to mention the intense pain that he had to deal with before and after using said power, he was starting to wonder if it was really worth it. As he thought about this, his mind turned to Naruto who also seemed to have some sort of power source like that red chakra he had used on Gaara. Then something seemed to click in his head.

_Itachi was after Naruto because of that red chakra, not Naruto himself._ Sasuke found himself a bit disturbed by this revelation; after all he had gotten his curse seal from that creepy snake Orochimaru. _Does this mean that Naruto also gets his power from some sort of seal? If so, what kind of seal, and is it anyway connected to the reason why the villagers hate Naruto? _Sasuke was starting to see that the more answers about the Dobe came to him, even more questions would come with them and it was annoying greatly. Sasuke decided that he would do everything he could to find out more about the Dobe despite what a certain little voice in his head said otherwise.

So Sasuke could barely stop himself from punching the wall when Naruto asked both Sakura and him to wait in the hallway while Naruto, Umiko, and Kakashi talked to the Godaime.

-------------------------------------------

**Translations:**

**Baa-chan= old hag (but it really means old lady)**

**Shimatta= shit**

**Onegai=please**


	5. Bombs and Shadows

**Chapter 6:**

**Bombs and Shadows**

Sasuke was getting pissed; it has been exactly thirty-five minutes and twenty-two seconds since Naruto and Umiko went to go see the Hokage (not that he was counting or anything) Somewhere in the back of his mind Sasuke was mildly impressed with how fast Naruto was able to get to see the Godaime when most people had to wait at least an hour. Still it didn't help the fact that Naruto had in all purposes left them there. They were his teammates; they had every right to know why the village hated Naruto as Umiko did. Sasuke could tell that Sakura was thinking along the same lines by the way she kept tapping her fingers and glancing toward the Hokage office.

Sasuke was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard Naruto yell "What the hell are you planning?!" followed by a red blur zooming past him cackling madly. Naruto followed shortly afterwards looking both frantic and worried at the same time chasing said red blur. Sasuke glanced at Sakura and saw her give a tiny nod back at him, he nodded back and together they went running after their teammate and his fiancée.

As Sasuke and Sakura chased down Naruto and Umiko, Sasuke realized that whatever training Umiko had gone through it was a lot more than the average civilian, if she was able to just barely keep out of reach of the three Genin. He noted that they were heading toward the Hokage monument and grew slightly worried about whatever she was planning. Still he couldn't help but respect her and grow just a little bit more suspicious of her when she scaled up the Hokage monument with nothing but her bare hands. When they reached the top he saw that Umiko looked slightly winded but over all just fine, she noticed them and flashed a quick grin.

"Umiko what are you planning?" Naruto asked somehow looking both serious and nervous at the same time.

"Oh don't worry I'm just going to use 'that'" Umiko replied and then let out a shrill whistle while digging into her pockets. Naruto lost his worried look and then let a large grin cover his face before he started laughing.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, just giving a welcoming back present to Konoha." Umiko said while pulling out a small brown bag and then turned to look at the sky. Sasuke looked upwards as well and noticed that a large multitude of birds were heading toward them.

"What are you planning?" He asked slightly curious as to what they were doing.

"Wait and see, I soo wouldn't want to be down there when they go off." Naruto said between laughs, it was then that the birds swarmed them and Umiko went to work. Sasuke and Sakura watched as she pulled out a loaf of bread and crumbled it, then she scatter the crumbs to the pigeons, she then reached into her bag and pulled out a handful of small explosives and started talking to the birds.

"Alright birds I want you to take these and drop them all over the village, make sure that there isn't a single place left untouched! Do you understand?!" Much to Sasuke surprise he saw all the birds nod their heads and then went up to her to grab one of the explosive in their claws and beaks.

"Okay you got ten minutes to get into position when the ten minutes are over I want you to drop the bombs no matter where you are, now go!" The birds scatter flying in all directions.

"So what do we do now?" Sakura asked worried about getting caught.

"We wait." Umiko replied.

"Aren't you worried about getting into trouble?"

"Not at all, if I'm going to get into trouble, it might as well be for something that I actually did instead of something I didn't do." Umiko said with a straight face and Sasuke wondered if she got into a lot of trouble for things she didn't do and voiced his thought out loud.

"It's not so much that I get blamed for a lot of things, it's more like I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still I don't really mind since I met Naruto that way."

_Why would meeting the Dobe be considered being in the wrong place at the wrong time? _Sasuke wondered if it had anything to do with the 'big bullies' that she had mention before and decided that if he wanted to find out more about their relationship he was going to have to find out how they first met.

_Why are you even wondering about it? You should be focusing on getting stronger so that you can kill your brother._ For once Sasuke agreed with the voice. Still, Naruto had access to a large amount of power and Sasuke wanted to know where he got it. Right now he wanted to know just what Naruto and his fiancée was planning so he leaned against one of the carved spikes on Sandaime's head.

Ten minutes past and Umiko let out a large grin before cutting a wire that had been previously well hidden, at the same time the birds dropped the bombs and a loud bang shook the village. Sasuke watched with some amusement as multi-color clouds began to billow around the village before a thought struck him.

_We were just invaded and everybody is still in high alert, so wouldn't these bombs cause some sort of panic to the villagers?_ at the same time Sasuke realized something else. _If the villagers are on high alert then the ninja would be on high alert too meaning that……._ Sasuke thought was interrupted by a loud cry of 'Sasuke-kun' that wasn't coming from Sakura and by some very loud swearing coming from Umiko.

"Kage Mane no Jutsu."

…_.We are in so much trouble. _Sasuke had a strong urge to face palm but his pride demanded otherwise.

---------------------------------

Shikamaru had been having a good day; the key term in that sentence was 'had.' He and Choji were at his favorite rooftop just watching the sky and munching on snacks and had been that way for nearly the whole day when Ino had found them and then started yelling at them because it had taken her hours to find them. That was something he couldn't get, he and Choji always went to the same rooftop so why the hell was it taking her hours to find them? He sighed and contemplated on rolling over or not when Ino grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him off the bench and loudly declared that they were all going to the top of the Hokage Monument because "I saw Sasuke-kun head up there with fore-head and there's no way am I leaving them alone together."

Shikamaru sighed and then decided that it wouldn't be worth the effort to argue with Ino and decided to go with her. He followed her only paying a small attention to what she was saying while keeping the rest of his attention to the sky. He noticed that there were more birds in the sky than normal, and felt a small unease form in his stomach. It wasn't until they got to the top of the Hokage Monument that he realized that all the birds were carrying small but colorful bombs and his sense of unease grew even larger.

Team seven had just gotten into sight and Shikamaru noticed right away the new girl with them. He watched as she leaned down and deftly cut a hidden wire and right after a large bang shook the village.

Shikamaru heard Ino yell out to Sasuke and noted that the new girl jumped with shock which could have meant any number of things. It could have meant that she was a terrible ninja and let her surprise show, or it could have meant that she wasn't a ninja which her clothes were suggesting. Still Shikamaru couldn't just let her get away, he still didn't know what those bombs did and he needed to find out now. So he focused his chakra and flashed through the hand signs his dad had taught him so long ago before calling out his technique. He noticed that both Ino and Choji had taken their positions next to him with Ino slightly behind him and Choji in front.

"**Kage Mane no Jutsu.**" Shikamaru could hear the girl loud swearing and feel the strain as she tried to break out of his jutsu. Shikamaru was slightly surprised when he realized that most of her strength was coming from her legs and arms and that she wasn't even trying to use her chakra to get out. He watched as Naruto and Sakura were yelling at his two teammates only adding to the confusion Ino earlier yell had cause. He briefly caught the words 'friend,' 'nee-chan,' and 'prank' and decided to end his jutsu already figuring out what just happened. Before he got the chance Sasuke intervened by saying,

"Let the Dobe's fiancée go." Shikamaru dropped the jutsu out of pure shock and saw both of his teammates stand frozen in shock as well. Ino was the first to recover and showed it by yelling out loudly "WHAT!!!"

Shikamaru sighed and glanced at Naruto now freed fiancée and saw that she was giving them a very calculating look which made him feel like he was being examined and mumbled a single word that summed up this whole situation.

"Mendokuse."

-----------------------

Umiko didn't know what to think, all she wanted to do was give Konoha a little welcoming back present when she found herself unable to move. Not being able to move is a scary experience for most people but it's downright terrifying for her. Being unable to move, to run, to stretch was the worst possible thing for her, it was one of her greatest fears; so to hide her ever growing panic she started to cuss very loudly and struggled with everything she had. She tried moving her arms and found that it didn't work and panic started to take over her mind and she tried to kick her leg but they weren't responding either. She felt panic take her mind as thousands of thoughts ran through her mind. What if she couldn't move again? Would she be stuck this way? Who was doing this to her, and why? Somewhere in the back of her mind Umiko realized that the one with the pineapple shaped hair was the one binding her and felt a surge of anger rush through her body. She was about to demand that he let her go when Sasuke said. "Let the Dobe's fiancée go."

She watched as the pineapple guy dropped his jutsu and vaguely heard his blond hair teammate yell "WHAT!!!" but she didn't care all of her attention was on the pineapple haired guy and trying to find out how he did that and the best way to get revenge. Their eyes met briefly and she heard him mumble something but was unable to make out what he said. Naruto nudge her in the ribs and she turned to look at him, he smiled and said.

"These are my friends from Team Ten Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru." He pointed to the blond one, the fat one, and the pineapple guy in order with their names. She saw that Choji had given her a small wave but Ino was staring at her like she had some sort of skin disease.

"What?" Umiko growled out at the blond.

"Why the hell are you marrying Naruto?" Ino asked with disgust in her voice.

"Why shouldn't I?" Umiko growled out and glared darkly at Ino hoping she could take the hint, but she didn't.

"Because he's an idiot, a numskull, a dead last, annoying, orange wearing, ramen loving, disgusting fool!" Ino answered even though Naruto had been standing right next to Umiko. Umiko saw that Naruto had visibly wilted and whatever patience she had left for the trio disappeared.

"Maybe it because Naruto is an amazing guy!" She yelled at the blond who yelled back.

"What's so great about him?" Ino asked with clear disbelief.

"Lots of things like the fact that he likes gardening. Or that he really like coming up here at sunset and sunrise to watch the sun rise and fall. That he's always thinking about other before himself. That he never goes back on his word, or like the fact that he hasn't thrown a single punch at any of the villagers no matter had bad they treat him. That even after all this time, no matter how much pain he's in, he still smiles to make everyone else feel better." Umiko could tell that she was crying now but she didn't care at all.

"I have to go now before some other crazy ninja tries to catch me, bye Naruto. Oh and pineapple try that move on me again and I'll personally make sure you beg to go to hell."

With that said Umiko turned on her heel and dashed away as fast as she could not even bothering to look behind her.

Naruto was shocked. Yes what Ino had said about him hurt, but he didn't think that it would have affected Umiko that much. Still Shikamaru using his Kage Mane no Jutsu on her probably made her temper all the shorter. He noticed that everybody looked surprised but Ino looked hurt and Shikamaru looked confused. _Maybe Umiko hurt her when she yelled at her?_ Naruto didn't really get it, but decided that he should at least try to clear up the mess Umiko had left behind.

"Don't worry about Umiko you guy just upset her too much, she should be fine tomorrow."

"How'd we upset her?"Shikamaru asked.

"Umiko afraid of not being able to move. Ever since I met her Umiko was almost always moving. She was always running, jumping, leaping, and rolling she never stops not even when she sleeps. So not

being able to move is one of her greatest fears; so you using the Kage Mane no Jutsu probably terrified her." Naruto was glad he was explaining this to Shikamaru now because he knew that Shikamaru would understand and never use it on her unless he really had to.

"Was what she said about you true?" Ino asked in a slightly shaking voice, Naruto gave a somewhat sad smile before replying.

"Yeah."

"Then why didn't you ever tell us!" Ino cried out sounding more hurt.

"You never asked. Now I have to go find Umiko and see where she's staying in the village." Naruto turned and left leaving behind some very confused friends.


	6. Foxes and the great Kazesama

Chapter 5:

Foxes and the Great Kaze-sama

Tsunade was not having a good day. First, Shizune had stolen all of her sake, then she had caught her as Tsunade was trying to sneak out, and third she won this morning daily lotto. Normally winning anything would be a good thing but Tsunade knew that her luck was terrible, so terrible in fact that when she won anything it meant something bad was going to happen. Normally it happens pretty soon after she won and right now she did not want to deal with any crisis. Especially since she had a terrible hang over and no sake to dull the pain, sure she had a few healthy remedies for hangovers but alcohol just made doing all the paperwork so much easier…

So when Naruto walked into the room, walked not barged like he normally does, leading an unknown girl with red hair and blue eyes and said to her,

"Tsunade baa-chan, we need to talk." Tsunade groaned and then banged her head against her desk.

---------------

Naruto was nervous, here he was about to tell the girl he considered an older sister the darkest secret that even he didn't know about until a year ago. Hell, he hadn't even told his team about Fuzzy yet, and he hadn't seen Umiko since he was seven. _But we did make that unbreakable vow, and there is no way am I going to die before I make Hokage just because I didn't keep my word. I never go back on my word!_ Still Naruto was worried, what if she rejected him, what would he do then? _Get a grip of yourself! She's you nee-chan she accepted you before she'll do so again now!_ Naruto couldn't help that sarcastic thought that entered his mind, if it wasn't for the fact that he knew what the fox's voice sounded like, he would have thought them to be his. _Yes well, that was before she knew there was a thousand year old murderous fox in your stomach._ Naruto shook his head and pushed the door open, he led Umiko into the room and was vaguely aware that Kakashi was there standing to the side. For some reason this brought comfort to Naruto and he turned to look at Tsunade.

"Tsunade baa-chan, we need to talk." He had not expected Tsunade to groan loudly and bang her head on her desk.

"Does she do this all the time?" Umiko whispered to him and Naruto felt like laughing but didn't instead he answered back.

"Nope she only does this when she doesn't have enough sake; I have the feeling that Shizune her assistant stole it all." He made sure to answer with a serious voice and was laughing hysterically on the inside from Umiko horror slash dumbfounded look on her face.

"I heard that you brat. Well who the hell is she?" Tsunade growled out.

Before he could answer Umiko blurted out, "Who the hell made the new Hokage an alcoholic blond?" Naruto could almost feel the daggers Tsunade was glaring at Umiko and decided to stop her before she dug her own grave.

"Baa-chan this is Umiko and she…. Uh… well…"

"Spit it out already."

"She'smyfiancee." He blurted out in one breath. He watched as Tsunade blinked and blinked again before asking.

"Could you repeat that slowly?"

"Um… She my fiancée." He watched as Tsunade eyes grew comically large and had a strange urge to laugh. He watched as she wrestled her emotion back under control and waited for whatever questions that will come.

"When did this happen?" She asked as she placed her chin on her hands.

"Shortly after I turned seven." Tsunade raised an eyebrow before asking.

"If it happened so long ago then why are you talking to me about it? Even if you are a ninja you can't legally marry until you're sixteen." Naruto felt himself blush and was glad to see that Umiko had too. He coughed to clear his throat a swallowed the sudden lump that was in his throat.

"Well you see we made that promise in an unbreakable vow… "Tsunade face went slake in shock and when she regained control of her mouth she yelled.

"You did what!"

"We made an unbreakable vow."

"Yeah I heard you the first time, well why did you make an unbreakable vow?"

"It was my idea! My mother told me about them before she died and even showed me how to do them." Umiko piped up. Tsunade fell silent before asking.

"So what was it that you had to do for this unbreakable vow?"

"I had to find out why the village hated me and become strong enough to protect her from them." Naruto felt relief when he saw Tsunade get the hidden message when he told her his part of her vow now he waited to see what she thought he should do.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Tsunade asked after giving Umiko a long, hard, and critical look.

Umiko turned to look at Naruto and asked "Why did we need to get her permission to tell me about why the village hates you?"

"Because there's a law that prohibits anyone from speaking about it." Kakashi answered for Naruto.

"Why is there a law about Naruto?" Umiko asked looking even more confused.

"Well you remember the Kyuubi?" Naruto asked her.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well I'm him… sort of."

-------------------

Everything made sense. The way adults treated Naruto, why they were always so violent around his birthday. Why he was never allowed to the Kyuubi festival. It all made sense now. Still it was hard to get use to the fact that Naruto, her Naruto, had a giant thousand year old fox sealed in his belly.

_Still it's not like he choose to have that old fox in him._ Then Umiko realized something. _They were blaming him something he didn't do._

Then Umiko felt anger blaze through her body, remembering all the things they did to him, all the things he had to go through, all the suffering he went through, she had never felt so angry before. She was so angry that she was shaking; it was around then that she realized that Naruto was standing in front of her looking nervous.

"Don't worry Naruto I'll make sure that they get what they deserve." She couldn't help the small, somewhat evil laugh emanating through her. Umiko was very amused by the alarmed look on his face before cackling again and running out of the room with Naruto shout of

"What the hell are you planning?!" Behind her.

Kakashi waited until Naruto had left after his madly cackling fiancée before shutting the door and turning to look at the Godaime. She was in deep thought and glanced up at Kakashi.

"An unbreakable vow huh?"

"Yeah I was as surprised as you was. I did a check back at Ichiraku's and it clears out. They made an unbreakable vow. Never thought that I would hear that term again." Kakashi closed his book and looked at the Godaime who was staring out the window.

"The unbreakable vow is a technique that only a certain clan from Whirlpool can do." Tsunade spoke aloud. "The only clan that could do it was the Uzumaki, and the only known survivor of the Uzumaki clan was Uzumaki Kushina. Who happens to be Naruto's mother, if that's true then who exactly is Umiko?" Just as Tsunade finished saying this there was a loud bang outside and huge clouds of multi-color clouds billowed out into the town, a giant poster fell and covered the Hokage Monument. On the poster were the words:

**TADAIMA KONOHA!!! THE GREAT KAZE-SAMA IS BACK!!! BE PREPARED FOR ALL HELL TO BREAK LOOSE!**

**Translations:**

**Tadaima=I'm back**

**Culture note: In Japan girls are legally allowed to marry at the age of sixteen, but boys can only marry at the age of twenty-one**


	7. The Fire Dragon Diabolo

**Chapter 7**

**The Fire Dragon Diabolo**

Team Ten, Sasuke and Sakura stood in silence; both Ino and Sakura looked shocked. Choji was munching one a bag of BBQ flavored chips, Sasuke was leaning on one of the carved spikes of the Sandaime head, and Shikamaru was standing next to Choji. Shikamaru took one look at everyone there and summed up the whole situation in one word.

"Mendokuse"

Ino was stunned; she hadn't been expecting the drama that had just happened to occur when she had followed Sasuke up the mountain, and now that it did she felt ashamed. She really didn't know Naruto all that well and yet she still said all those things about him. She had always assumed that her first impression of him had always been the right one and there really was nothing more to Naruto besides the orange wearing, ramen loving, Hokage wanna-be, freak. So when Umiko started yelling at her when she asked why she was marrying him, Ino had gotten a little angry and demanded to know what was so great about him. Umiko's answer had surprised her and also made her realize just how little she actually knew about Naruto. _How can I know so little about someone who's always so loud?_ What really hurt though was what Naruto had told her when she asked him why he never told them about himself.

"You never asked."

His saying that, made Ino realize that she never had asked him anything; no one did. If she had just taken the few minutes to talk to him, actually talk to him just what sort of things would she learn? What sort of hobbies did he have, what did he do in his spare time, why did he want to become Hokage so badly? So many questions that didn't have answers flew through her mind that it was giving her a headache. She saw Sasuke push away from his perch and start walking away from them.

"Where are you going Sasuke-kun?" Ino hadn't been expecting an answer from him but was glad when he answered.

"Home, this is all too stupid to think about any more." he didn't say anything else as he walked away from them.

Shikamaru sighed, "This is all too troublesome. Choji and I are going home." Shikamaru left with Choji trailing behind him leaving Ino and Sakura alone. The two girls looked at each other; they had been getting along better since the Chunin Exams, and even considered each other as best friends again so it only made perfect sense to Ino that Sakura could help her figure things out.

"Who was that Sakura?"

"That was Umiko, Naruto's fiancée."

"When did they get engaged? I would have heard something if it happened recently."

"Well from what I know it happened When Naruto was seven."

"Seven! That was at least five years ago!" Ino was shocked, to think that Naruto had been engaged for five years and no one knew about it.

"Yeah, I was as surprised as you were." Sakura spoke to Ino looking slightly disturbed, "Let's go home, and hopefully this whole mess will be cleared up tomorrow okay?" Ino nodded and followed Sakura down the Monument while her thoughts were still in turmoil. Her thought were temporarily stilled when she came face to face with a now red, green, blue, orange, purple, pink, and bright neon yellow splattered village.

_I didn't know Sakura meant that literally._ The blond thought rather grimly as she continued to follow her companion.

_---------------------_

When she got home her father asked her to look after the shop while he and her mother went grocery shopping. Ino gladly did as her father asked taking comfort in the familiar actions of putting on her apron and settling herself behind the counter. She pulled out the large book of flowers her mother had gotten her, and idly started to flip through the pages. Ino knew all of the flowers in the book by heart but she just couldn't bring herself to throw the book away.

"Oh, Ino are you watching over the shop now?" Asuma asked looking both embarrassed and slightly nervous. Of course Ino knew exactly why he was nervous; it was so obvious that he like Kurenai-sensei that Ino couldn't help but tease him about it every time he walked into the store.

"Yeah, my parents went to buy grocery, so are you going to see Kurenai-sensei?" Ino asked in a teasing voice and nearly laughed when her sensei face light up bright red. This made Ino remember what happened with Naruto earlier and her mirth turned into confusion. _Maybe Asuma-sensei could help; he's a really good listener._ Ino though to herself and decided it was worth a try anyway.

"Ne, Asuma-sensei I just found out something really weird, and now I don't know what to think about it." Ino watched as her sensei calmed down and looked at her with a clam expression and then urge her to go on. Ino smiled, even if her sensei often caved into Choji often demands for food and did nothing but play Shogi while they were training, he knew when to listen.

So Ino told Asuma all about Naruto and how little she knew of him. How she just found out that he had a fiancée for the last five years and now didn't know how to act around him since he was no longer the annoying idiot she though he was. Asuma listened to her talk without interrupting and only nodded his head from time to time showing that he was listening. By the time Asuma left, she felt much better and decided that she couldn't do anything about it until she learned more about Naruto to decide who he really was. Ino went to sleep that night determined to find out more about Naruto, not knowing that her little talk with Asuma was going to cause so much trouble later.

----------------

It was around seven in the morning and Hinata and Shino were waiting in training grounds five for their other teammate and their sensei when they head the loud voice of their teammate Kiba.

"Oi, Oi guys you would not believe what I just heard!" Kiba yelled while running up to them.

"What is it Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked secretly happy that Kiba was always so energetic.

"Is it in anyway related to a dog?" Shino asked with no hint of emotions.

"No! You see it's actually about that idiot Naruto." Kiba shot back at Shino even though he wasn't angry. He knew it was Shino way of playing around.

"N-Na-Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata while she blushed a bright red.

"Yeah you see; I heard this from my sister Hana, who heard it from Anko, who heard it from Kurenai, who heard it from Asuma, who heard it from Ino, who saw it happen herself. You see Naruto has a…."

"WATCH OUT!"

Before Kiba could finish his sentence he was hit in the face with some strange device. It looked like someone had gotten two wooden bowls and glued their bottoms together then painted the whole thing a bright red.

"What the hell was that!?" Kiba roared while grabbing the strange thing that had hit him in the face and

looking all over the clearing.

"My bad, I didn't think that there would be anybody here. Gomen." A red headed girl came stumbling out of the bushes looking slightly embarrassed. "Can I have my diabolo back?"

"Here" Kiba growled out while handing back her toy, Hinata look curious and asked.

"Wh-what it th that?" she stammered feeling awkward with the new girl. The new girl looked at her for a long time before answering.

"It's a diabolo, it's a toy… no a tool maybe? I'm not really sure what you would consider it but I use it as a tool in my performances. I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it, it's really popular in the west but it hasn't quite made its way here to Konoha."

"How do you use it?" Shino asked letting his curiosity show. She smiled and said, "Like this." Before tossing the diabolo high into the air while pulling out what looked like two sticks connected by a thin wire. When the diabolo fell it landed on the wire and started rolling back and forth on the wire.

"Is that all? It's kind of boring." Kiba commented and Akamaru barked in agreement. She blushed before yelling.

"That's only because I'm doing the basics right now, I'm planning on this sequence that's much better! Here watch." That she stopped her diabolo and went back to the bushes she came out of. When she came back she was holding two more diabolo. She glared at Kiba before bending to pick up her first diabolo and its handles. She threw all three diabolo into the air and started to juggle them on the wire.

"Okay this was better than before but it's still…" Kiba did get to finish his sentence as the girl started to toss the diabolo all around her making it twist and jump around her. Faster and faster she went until all three diabolo blurred together forming what looked like a twisting snake around her. Team eight all noticed that she was still getting faster and felt like the sequence was about to reach its climax and the all held their breath. They watched as she started to toss the diabolo higher and higher and then she slipped and the diabolo went flying, Kiba had to duck to get out of the way of one.

"Th-that was amazing." Hinata said looking at the girl in amazement.

"No it wasn't, I messed up on the finale, that's never a good thing." The girl glared at the ground looking frustrated.

"Hey, even if you _did_ mess up on the finale, it was still great!" Kiba exclaimed and Shino nodded. This seems to make her look even more frustrated.

"It's not good at all, if I can't even get it now using a simple diabolo then there's no way that I'll be able to do it once I set it on fire."

"You're going to set it on fire?" Hinata gasped.

"Yeah this sequence it called the Dragons Dance, all three diabolo are going to be set a flame and for the climax I'm supposed to toss all three diabolo into the air so that they smash into each other releasing our some gun powder which will catch fire and create what will look like a gout of flame that the 'dragon' breathes out."

"That sounds amazing! Tell me when you get it down okay?" Kiba asked looking excited.

"Sure I'll invite you to my first performance." She replied with a smile.

"It sounds kind of da-dangerous." Hinata said looking at her worriedly; the red headed girl gave her a reassuring grin before answering.

"It is, but that what makes this whole thing fun, also I'm the one who created this sequence so I want to be the first one to perform it. Besides you guys are ninja I bet you do things that are ten times more dangerous than this."

"You bet we do; only recently this village was invaded and even now we're still rebuilding and before that we took the Chunin Exam, and we're almost killed by that freak Gaara." Kiba told her with a large grin that made it hard to believe him. Still the girl looked disturbed and glanced back toward the village looking worried.

"Hey we never asked your name." Kiba said just realizing it. The girl looked surprised before nodding to herself as if she had just realized it herself.

"Shouldn't you give your name first?" She asked.

"Oh right, my name is Inuzuka Kiba."

"Aburame Shino."

"Hyuuga Hinata, nice to meet you."

"I'm Umiko, Nice to meet you too!" When Umiko said her name Kiba looked thoughtful before sudden understanding dawned on his face.

"Hey you're that girl! Naruto fiancée!" after he said that Hinata face went even paler and she suddenly fainted. When Hinata fainted, Umiko jumped forward to catch her and as Umiko cried out Hinata's name in panic she couldn't help but wonder if there was someone else after Naruto.


	8. Trapeze and the Uzumaki

**Chapter 8**

**Trapeze and the Uzumaki**

Neji was walking with Tenten to their team training ground and rolled his eyes as Lee ran past yelling, "If I cannot do two hundred laps around Konoha before my youthful rival reaches our training grounds then I shall do six-thousand, one arm push ups!" After Neji fought Naruto, he was able to see what a great ninja Lee was even of he wasn't able to use his chakra. He now accepted Lee as his rival but he never let Lee know that; if somehow the green-clad boy did, he would assist in doing thousands of pointless challenges; he was not going to end up like Kakashi.

_Still, if Lee was able to use his chakra, he would be unstoppable. After all, chakra is a mix of mental power and physical endurance and with as much 'physical endurance' Lee has, he would have nearly limitless chakra capabilities._ Neji was very glad that Lee didn't know this; he didn't want Lee to feel depressed by his inability to use chakra.

"Ne, Neji did you hear?" Tenten asked him.

"Hear what?"

"You don't know? Everyone talking about it, the whole village is buzzing about it." Tenten replied while pretending to be shocked.

"No I don't, I don't listen usually listen to the villagers and I don't care much for gossip."

"Oh but you'll be very interested in this, it's about Naruto."

"Naruto? Was he behind yesterday prank?" Neji felt annoyance run through his veins, the part of the Hyuuga complex he was living in had been turned neon yellow in yesterdays prank, and the clothes he had left out to dry had turned a bright pink as well.

"No it wasn't! Actually I heard it was from Kaze. You remember the guy who disappeared five years ago? He was the village biggest prankster before Naruto. Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Then what is it?"

"Well you see I actually heard this from Asuma when he came to get his chakra blades sharpened but it appears that Naruto has a fiancée!"

"What?" Neji wasn't entirely too sure if he had heard what he just heard. _A fiancée, when the hell did that happen?_ Neji was careful not to let any of his shock show on his face but he must have not been careful enough because Tenten was smiling a larger smile at him and giving him a knowing look.

"I heard it happened when Naruto was seven." Tenten added relishing the shocked look on Neji face. Neji was stunned; he was quickly learning that Naruto was the village number one most unpredictable ninja for a reason. Neji was jolted out of his thoughts when he noticed something odd about their training grounds.

Neji stopped at the entrance of their training grounds and slowly looked around. Tenten who had noticed the change in their training grounds too had stopped by Neji and was looking at the strange contraption in curiosity. Four large pillars held up a net which spanned across their entire training field, swings made out of rope and smooth rods hung up at least twenty feet in the air, and a platform had been made in the far right side of the net.

"What the hell is this?" Tenten asked aloud.

"I do not know Tenten-san but it looks very fun." Lee exclaimed have just come caught up to them.

"Maybe the girl hiding in the bushes can tell us what it is." Neji said aloud as he deactivated his Byakugan.

"Eh...he, he, he, so you saw me, huh?" the girl replied while stepping out of the bushes across from them. The girl had curly red hair that fell to her waist, and deep oceanic blue eyes. She was currently wearing a skin tight spandex suit that was light blue and a small tank top that was white. Before Neji could ask her what she was doing here Lee cut in saying.

"Ohhh that is a very youthful spandex suit! It fits you very youthfully!"

"Um… thanks I think?" The girl seemed very flustered before saying "I like yours too." Neji mentally groaned and listen to Lee start to rant about the 'youthfulness' of spandex suits and how 'green is the most youthful color ever but that blue came in a close second place.' He really did groan when the girl replied with "I really like spandex suits because they're so easy to move around in." and "Blue was more youthful than green." He really wanted to smack his head on a tree or something when Lee and the girl started a deep discussion on spandex suits and decided that he had to end this now before either he or Tenten mind melted from listening to their discussion.

"We still don't know why you're here or what your name is." Neji cut in when they had both paused to catch their breath. The girl blinked before giving a smile and scratching the back of her head in a Naruto-ish move. Neji noticed that both Tenten and Lee had noticed this as well.

"Um right, but shouldn't you be telling me your names first?" She asked.

"I see no need to tell you my name." Neji replied and dodge a blow from Tenten when she tried to hit him on the upside of his head.

"Fine I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours afterward, deal?" Neji nodded.

"My name's Umiko nice to meet you." Neji raised an eyebrow.

"No last name?" he asked assuming that Umiko was her first name.

"Nope, my mom never told me what my father last name was and she never told me hers so I just never really had a last name. Now what are your names?"

"Rock Lee!"

"Tenten I don't like giving out my last name."

"Hyuuga Neji."

"Hyuuga? Are you related to Hinata?" Umiko asked.

"Yes, she my cousin but you still didn't explain what you're doing here."

"Wow you're nothing like her, she's not an arrogant stuck up prick." Umiko said out loud without seeming to notice it. "Well anyway I'm out here training."

"Training for what?" Tenten asked. Umiko smiled then answered.

"I'm a trapeze artist; this set up is to help me practice even though it is a little low…" Umiko stated as she gazed wistfully at the swings.

"What's a trapeze artist?" Lee asked looking confused.

"Um well, their people who swing around and sort of dance in the air."

"So you're like a monkey." Neji stated flatly.

"NO, I'm not! Jeez do you purposely try to piss off everyone you meet?" Umiko asked sarcastically.

"Yes he does!" Tenten answered. "He totally pissed off Naruto shortly after they met."

"Naruto doesn't like you?" Umiko asked suddenly losing her somewhat friendly tone.

"He didn't, but we straightened everything out during the Chunin exams. He taught me a very important lesson." Neji told.

"Yeah, he has a habit of doing that." She replied with a soft smile on her face.

"Why do you even care what Naruto thinks of us?" Tenten asked.

"That is because of the fact that she's Naruto's precious flower my dear students!" Gai yelled out

popping out of nowhere startling the two girls there.

"Gai-sensei please don't pop out of nowhere like that!" Tenten asked annoyed with being caught off guard.

"What do you mean by 'precious flower' Gai-sensei?" Lee asked while whipping out a notebook to take notes on.

"I mean that she's Naruto's fiancée everyone is talking about; I know this because my ultra-hip rival has told me so last night when I ran into him at the Hokage's office!" Gai answered.

"Whoever she is it doesn't change the fact that her job is to be a monkey." Neji replied a bit annoyed at having been called an 'arrogant stuck up prick' earlier.

"My job is not being a monkey! Fine I'll just show you what I do!" With that said she turned around and headed toward the platform.

Umiko was beyond pissed, no one ever got away with insulting her job. She was so going to show him what being a trapeze artist was all about.

"Hey Lee I'm going to need your help if you don't mind."

"No not at all, but what will I have to do?"

"It's simple really all you have to do is catch me and let go when I tell you, but make sure to keep swinging. You also have to swing upside down and hook the bar with your knees. "

"Okay I can do that!" Lee nodded enthusiastically.

Umiko climbed her way up to the pedestal board and griped the trapeze bar. When she did so she felt all of her anger just wash away. This was her stage, it might only be a stage for three people but none the less this was her stage and she was going to do everything she can to make them smile. Even if one of them happens to be an annoying arrogant prick. Umiko watched as Lee ready himself before pushing off. He swung back and forth a few times to get the feel of things and when he was ready he flashed thumbs up at her. Umiko took a deep breath and jumped off the pedestal.

Air rushed past her as she swung forward; all her worries, fears, and anger disappeared as her body flew through the air and she felt joy blossom throughout her body, she saw Lee and prepared to do her first trick: the Pirouette. She allowed herself to swing back and forth a few times until her timing with Lee was perfect before releasing the bar. As she flew toward Lee she spun herself her with her arms tuck into her sides three times before flinging her arms out for Lee to catch. Lee was able to catch her and let her go perfectly. _He's really good at this, maybe I'll be able to do more complicated stuff. _Umiko thought to herself with a large smile as she swung back holding her pose with her head tilted back and her right leg bent. Feeling emboldened, Umiko prepared for her next trick. She did the Double Somersault next; she turned and swung back toward Lee, as she rose above him she let go and rolled forward twice before straightening out and letting Lee catch her. _It's been forever since I had a good partner it's time to have a little fun _Umiko thought while laughing. Forgetting about the ninja below her, she lost herself in the joy of being a trapeze artist and really enjoyed herself for the first time since coming back to Konoha.

She performed trick after trick. She swung forward and when she reached her highest she flipped without letting go of the bar to pull her legs up and hooked them around the bar, as she swung backward she waited until she started swinging forward again before pulling herself up into a sitting position on the bar then waited until Lee was in the right position before tipping backwards and flipping to garb Lee out stretched hand. 'The Penny Roll' Umiko thought to herself. The shooting star that was an easy one; all she did was swing toward Lee and when she let go she spread her arms and legs forming a star with her body. She did the back hip circle next; she pulled herself up till the bar was resting on her hip making sure that her body was completely straight she flipped backwards feeling her body roll under the bar. On her next swing forward she flipped so her ankles hooked the bar and held her hand out for Lee once he took hold of her hands she unhooked her ankles and waited for lee to let go of her so she could swing back to her original bar. 'The Front End Straddle' Umiko thought to herself pleased that she was able to pull it off. The last time she had tried her feet had gotten tangled with the bar and she got a face full of painful net. Umiko decided that she would do one more trick before going solo. On her next swing she let go of the bar and spun once before letting Lee catch her and as she returned to her bar she spun herself again performing the full twisted straight jump. Umiko loved flying through the air twisting and turning her body as graceful as she could, watching as the sky and earth met in a dizzyingly blur; she loved the feeling of escape being a trapeze artist gave her.

"Lee arigato but I'm going to go solo from here so you can stop now." Umiko whispered to him when he caught her again.

"Ah, I see hai." Lee let go and gave a small salute before swinging back and flipping to land on the pedestal. Umiko smiled before starting the static trapeze act she had been making. She slowed down her swings until she wasn't moving at all and then stood up. She smiled down to Team Guy and then started dancing. Moving and bending her body in nearly impossible ways she danced on the trapeze, she finished her act and then let herself drop toward the net making sure she landed on her back.

"That was awesome Umiko-san!" Tenten complemented to Umiko, Umiko smiled and turned to look at Neji.

"So how was that ASP?" Umiko asked

"What does ASP stand for?" Tenten asked her in a whisper, "Arrogant Stuck up Prick." Umiko whispered back to her.

"To bad you weren't a Hyuuga that flexibility would have made you a great Hyuuga." Neji answered ignoring the whole ASP part. Umiko smiled then blinked when Guy said.

"That was beautiful Umiko-san! You have truly shown your youthfulness today! In celebration I shall do five-hundred laps around Konoha!"

"Guy-sensei! I shall join you in your five-hundred laps and if I cannot finish it before sunset I'll do six-thousand crunches!"

"No Lee, for this one there shall be no punishment for you helped show Umiko-youthfulness!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Do they do this a lot?" Umiko asked the rest of Team Guy. Neji rolled his eyes.

"You have no idea." Neji stared at her for a long time before saying "I'm apologize. I should not have made fun of your occupation."

"Yeah you shouldn't have, I bet you wouldn't like it if I started bad mouthing ninjas, so don't bad mouth trapeze artists." Umiko replied looking a little smug.

"Ne ,Umiko-san do you know anything else?" Tenten asked excited.

"Yeah! I'm really good at tight rope walking and the diabolo, I'm also pretty good on the trampoline but I really like the trapeze the best."

"You sound like a circus performer." Tenten said joking around.

"Well I am. My goal is to make my own circus right here in Konoha. It's one of the reasons I came back to Konoha." Umiko replied not the least bit offended.

"Was your other goal to marry Naruto?" Neji asked smirking when Umiko face turned bright red.

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!" the two embraced crying rivers and suddenly they were a beach while the sun was setting and a large wave crashed behind them.

"What the fuck was that!?" Umiko yelled in surprise and horror. Neji smirked and Tenten laughed already used to their teammate and sensei strange behavior.

While Umiko was busy wondering in horror about how she was transported to a sunset at the beach Neji frowned.

"It's weird."Neji whispered to Tenten.

"What is?" Tenten whispered back to him, wondering why they were whispering.

"Umiko a civilian but she has fully developed chakra pathways, not only that she has as much, if not more chakra than a Chunin should" Neji whispered to Tenten making sure that Umiko was still focused on the disturbing display their sensei and teammate were putting on. Tenten frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know."

----------------------

"I happened to have found something very interesting today." said one of two figures, sitting inside of a flame-lit room.

"Oh what was it?" responded the second shadowed figure

"A giant bridge in the land of waves."

"I've heard of it, but why bring it up? We know she's not in the land of waves."

"Well, it turns out that the bridge was named after someone."

"Who?"

"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Uzumaki? Do you think he could be..?"

"He's from Konoha, the last place Uzumaki Kushina was seen."

"Konoha huh?"

"Yeah Konoha, finally after all this time. We shall have the Uzumaki blood in our hands!" the first said, grinning wickedly.


	9. Voices and Teams A and B

**Chapter 9**

**Voices and Teams A and B**

Umiko looked around at the small dirty hotel room that she had been staying at since she got back to Konoha and sighed. _It's been three days since I returned and no one wants to hire 'the demon brat fiancée' I'm seriously running low on money. With the money that I saved up on the road and the cost of the hotel I could probably stay here for another week but if I don't find a job before that then I'm in a lot of trouble._ Umiko growled and felt her anger resurface when she remembered exactly why they had called Naruto that as a kid, _Damn those stupid, narrow, minded idiots that call themselves citizens of Konoha! Why can't they see how great Naruto is? Why can't they realize how much their words hurt him? Why does the Hokage let this happen? The village has become to bold since I disappeared I think it's about time that I set up my next prank._ Umiko sighed again. As much as she wanted to prank the village again she was going to need the materials to do so and that would cost money, money that she couldn't waste right now.

Even as Umiko thought about all this she could still feel it, a warm tingling sensation in the back of her head, proof that Naruto had completed his part of the vow and a warning urging her to hurry up with hers. Umiko never told Naruto but there was a part of the vow that states that if one person was unable to complete their part of the vow within three years their partners completed theirs then they would die. She hadn't thought that Naruto would complete his part of the vow so quickly and that he would get a bridge named after him. When she first felt the warm tingly sensation she had been surprised and a little worried that it happened so soon but wasn't worried about it at all, she had three years to complete her goal and she was planning on coming back to Konoha a year before the dead line. The bridge changes everything.

_I understand why they would name the bridge after him but do they have to yell out his name as often as they do? Don't they realize what a danger they're bringing for Naruto?_ Umiko thought to herself feeling worry creep over her. _**Of course not.**_ A high pitched voice whispered into her ear. _**Even Naruto doesn't know what danger he's in every time he yells his name out like that. Neither did the Sandaime when he let him keep that name. He would know what danger he faces if you told him but you're too much of a coward to tell him aren't you?**_ the voiced hissed at her full of accusation.

"Shizukane (be quiet)." Umiko whispered holding herself in a tight hug betraying her calm voice.

_**Why should I? If this continues they will find him, and they will take him!**_ It yelled back at her.

"Shizukane!" Umiko repeated louder her voice trembling.

_**NO! I will not be ignored anymore! Do you wish to lose the only family you have left! Do you want to see him die because of you just like your mother did?**_ It yelled at her, full of anger.

"SHUT UP!" she roared out her arms over her head as if to protect herself from a blow. Umiko didn't know how long she sat there with her arms raised above her head but she just couldn't bring herself to open her eyes and lower her arms.

_**Blood calls to blood, and I will not let kin be destroyed by your cowardice. You will tell him.**_ It whispered in her ears, sounding much softer than it was before. Umiko felt its presence fade from her mind and let out a sigh of relief. She reached down and lifted the hem of her pajama to expose her ankle and sighed when she saw large red scales had started growing there.

_If only the villagers knew that the real monster was me._ Umiko couldn't help the tears that fell from her eyes. She didn't know how long she just sat there crying but when her tears stopped she stood and prepared herself for another day of job hunting. She pulled her brush through her thick red hair and changed into a simple light blue dress and a pair of light blue ballet slippers that were embroidered with red flowers. She pulled out a small backpack which she placed her wallet, identification papers, and anything else she might need during an interview. Umiko left the hotel determined to find a job, not knowing that somewhere in the other side of town a certain group of ninjas were getting together.

------------------

Sasuke sighed and wondered what he was doing in Choji's favorite BBQ restaurant, watching Choji eat nauseating amounts of meat and rice while surrounded by the rest of the rookie nine and Team Guy, minus Naruto. _Right. Sakura and Ino showed up at my door step demanding that I go with them to meet up with the rest of the ninja in our age group, and before I could close the door on them they pulled me out and dragged me here._

_**Being dragged around by a pair of fan girls how pathetic Uchiha.**_

_Shut up._ Sasuke told the voice, getting annoyed by its many insults toward him. Briefly, he felt his anger flare when he realized that he was dragged around by a pair of fan girls who he had always thought to be weak. That was squashed down fast as he remembered that he no longer thought that way towards Sakura since he had woken up in the Forest of Death and seeing Sakura ready to sacrifice everything to keep him and Naruto safe. _Still what am I doing here?_ Before Sasuke could think of an answer Sakura stood up and cleared her throat.

"I hope everyone knows what we're all doing here." She called out looking over the group.

"Hell no! How was I suppose to know what's going on when Lee suddenly shows up out of know where and says that I gotta come here before dragging me off before I could pick up Akamaru!" Kiba yelled looking pissed off.

"Lee you Baka, you were supposed to tell him." Ino yelled at Lee.

"Gomen Ino-san. I was just so excited I guess that it just slipped my mind." Lee apologized. Ino huffed but didn't do anything else.

"Well we're all here to figure out Naruto and his fiancée." Sakura said to fill in the people that didn't know what was going on. As soon as she said it a bunch if whispers rose into the air and Sasuke felt his annoyance grow. He heard Shikamaru mumble "Mendokuse." And knew that he wasn't the only one to feel that way.

"This is stupid. I'm leaving." Sasuke said as he stood up to leave.

"Ah, matte Sasuke-kun! Don't you want to know more about Umiko?" Sakura asked him trying to get him to stay.

"No, whoever marries the Dobe is of no concern of mine. He can do whatever he likes, I don't care." Sasuke replied, which was a lie, but he wanted to find out everything by himself.

"Even if I told you she has fully developed chakra coils?" Neji spoke up stopping him dead in his tracks.

Sasuke turned to look at him eyes questioningly. "She has fully developed chakra coils?" Neji nodded causing another round of whispers to start again.

"Quiet!" Ino yelled catching everybody attention. "I know that we all have a lot of questions about Umiko…"

"Like where's she from."

"Or how they met."

"How she knew how to make an unbreakable vow."

"Why she has fully developed chakra coils."

"How she was able to out run three genin even though she's a civilian."

Shikamaru sighed before slamming his fist into the table causing everyone to go silent. "If we're ever going to figure out more about Naruto and Umiko's relationship, we're going to need a plan and to make a plan we need to know what we know about them already. Every one of us have met her before, now what did you notice?"

"She likes spicy foods and ramen; she also appears to be an old customer to Ichiraku." Sakura spoke up.

"Even though she's a civilian she was able to outrun me, Sakura, and Naruto and then scale the Hokage Monument with her bare hands." Sasuke added.

"She knows a lot more about Naruto then we do and gets upset whenever someone bad mouth Naruto." Ino added.

"She knew how to play with a diabolo and was planning on putting on a performance." Kiba said.

"I wouldn't be too surprised; she said she was a trapeze artist and that she knew how to use a diabolo. She also hates it when people disrespect her job Neji should know since she nicknamed him ASP." Tenten added with a grin.

"What does ASP stand for?" Choji asked.

"Arrogant Stuck up Prick." Tenten replied her grin growing larger.

"She has fully developed chakra coils and that her goal is to open up a circus here in Konoha." Neji

said ignoring the snickering around him.

"So she's a trapeze artist who wants to make a circus here in Konoha. Does anyone know why she left, and why she returned?" Shikamaru asked.

"She left to go find a relative of hers and she came back to finish her promise with Naruto that she made via unbreakable vow." Sasuke told Shikamaru and Shikamaru frowned.

"What's an unbreakable vow?" He asked.

"I'm not entirely too sure but I do know that if either one of them breaks their promise then they would both die." He watched as everyone eyes except Sakura grow big and if he had been anywhere else he would have laughed at their dumbstruck expressions. Suddenly Shikamaru sat up straighter and asked.

"Does this promise have a time limit?" Sasuke frowned.

"No I don't think it does. Why?" Sakura asked.

"Because a long time ago I read that promises like the one you're describing was made with chakra between two people and in most cases if they didn't complete the promise in a set amount of time they would die."

"But Naruto already completed his part of the promise would he die to?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know there are too many factors here for me to figure it out. We don't know by what method they made this unbreakable vow nor do we know what exactly how this vow works." Shikamaru sat back down and went into his thinking pose, after a few minutes he opened his eyes and looked at everyone.

"Ino, Sakura, Hinata, Choji, and Shino you guys will be team A and go and track down Umiko and find a secluded place to question her. Neji, Sasuke, Kiba, Tenten, Lee, and me will be team B and find Naruto and question him as well."

"Why do we have to go after Umiko?" Shino asked.

"Even if Umiko is faster than the normal genin her strength is pretty low compared to the average ninja so it's wouldn't take much to keep her still. Meanwhile Naruto is not only fast but he's strong too. With his almost endless supply of energy it's going to take Lee speed, Tenten aim, and Neji and Sasuke strength to keep him down." Shikamaru explained.

"Then why are you chasing Naruto and not Umiko?" Shin asked.

"Because she hates me and if terrified of my Kage Mane no Jutsu." Shikamaru explained.

"Now let's go!" Everybody nodded and left the restaurant

With team A they had just arrived in the village square and were looking out for a blob a red in the crowds of people below them.

"Why are we here?" Choji asked.

"Because Shino bug tells him that she's here but he's not entirely sure where." Sakura told him, he nodded and looked back at the crowd while opening another bag of chips. The sat there scanning the crowds for a few minutes before they saw her.

"Look there she is she just turned the corner there." Ino yelled while leaping toward the south east direction. Everyone else hurried to follow her and in no time they had caught up to her. When they landed behind her they saw her jump before whirling around to face them.

"Oh it's you guys, what do you want?" She asked with a tired smile. Sakura felt a little guilty when she saw her smiling but quickly shook it off.

"We want to talk to you about Naruto."

"Naruto?" she asked with a yawn.

"Yeah, we realized that there wasn't really much we knew about him and we thought we should ask you what he's like." Ino said.

"Shouldn't you just ask him yourself?" Umiko replied with a long yawn.

"We would but we're kind of embarrassed." Sakura said while blushing and looking down.

"Well then that's your *yawn* problem. " Umiko said before turning to look at Hinata."You're Hinata right?"

"Um… hai." Hinata mumbled not looking at Umiko.

"Sorry, I'm not good with names, it took me three months to remember Naruto name.*yawn* you like Naruto don't you?" Umiko asked as she rubbed her eyes. Hinata turned a bright red but didn't answer; Umiko gave her a sad smile before saying, "I'm sorry." Before falling asleep and being caught by Choji. It was then that they noticed the small black bugs that were going off her body and back towards Shino.

They all looked at him and he shrugged. "It was the easiest way to get her to come with us."

Naruto had been having a great Saturday. He was currently curled up on his bed having a nice, normal dream about him and Umiko, when he heard a loud crash come from his window. The noise snapped him awake and had him springing of his bed with his hidden kunai in hand before he could register who had broken into his window. A blur of black ran across his vision and he felt a sharp jab in his neck, as he went down he heard a certain Teme say:

"Nice hat Dobe."

Blackness overtook him.


	10. Q and A

**Chapter 10**

**Q and A**

The first thing Umiko noticed when she woke up, was the fact that she was tied up to a chair. The second thing she noticed was that she was blindfolded, and third was that she was being watched.

_What the hell happened to me?_ Umiko raged in her mind but stiffened when she heard that voice whisper in her ear.

_**You don't remember? **_It asked her in an innocent voice.

_Of course I do, I know exactly why I'm tied to a chair and wearing a blindfold while being watched by some unknown person or people._ Umiko thought sarcastically back toward it and almost snickered when she heard it sigh.

_**I was trying to help…**_

_The last time you tried to 'help' we almost died. The last time you tried to 'help' Yousuke did die!_ Umiko hissed toward it feeling satisfaction as she felt its presence leave her mind but before it left it whispered to her one more time.

_**Here's a hint, Naruto's friends.**_

_Naruto's friends? What was that supposed to mean?_ Umiko thought to herself. _Well what was I doing before I woke up? I was trying to find a job when I ran into Naruto's friends at the market. We started talking and Ino wanted to ask me questions about Naruto… then I got really sleepy for some reason and I guess I fell asleep. Wait a minute, why did I fall asleep? I had a full night rest and I wasn't the least bit sleepy when I left the hotel so there shouldn't have been a reason for me to fall asleep……………………………………..the hell! THEY DRUGGED ME! _Umiko wasn't entirely too sure how they drugged her only that they did and it pissed her off to no end. If it wasn't for the fact that Umiko was trying not to alert them that she was awake she would have been struggling for everything she was worth. Unfortunately for Umiko she never knew that when she slept she rolled around so much people wondered how she got any rest at all, so her pretending to 'sleep' really just gave her away.

"It looks like she is awake, shall we ask her some questions?" a voice that Umiko realized belong to Sakura asked out loud.

_How the hell did they know I was awake?!_ Umiko gave up all pretenses of being asleep and responded with a growl.

"Well I really didn't expect Naruto's friends to be into this kind of thing, I really hope you didn't get Naruto into bondage as well, I'll kill you if you did." Umiko said out loud in a fake surprised voice inwardly smirking when she heard some of them fall to the ground.

"What the hell are you talking about?! We're not into bondage!" Sakura yelled at Umiko but Umiko didn't look convinced.

"Right so I'm bond to a chair, blindfolded, in a room full of people who are watching me because this is the customary way of greeting people now?" Umiko nearly laughed when she imagined the look on their face but kept quite so she could hear their response.

"No we were just going to ask you some questions about Naruto!" Ino yelled at her and Umiko smirked.

"Ah I see now! The polite way of questioning people about other people are to knock them out, tie them to a chair, then blindfolded them and stare at them until they wake up. So nice to know, I wasn't entirely too sure if just ASKING them was a polite thing to do here in Konoha. Then again this is a ninja village maybe it's just like that in all ninja villages?" Umiko replied in a fake innocent voice while laughing madly inside. Umiko heard someone sigh before feeling her blindfold taken off. She blinked when she came face to face with Shino and stared at him for a long time before a look or horror passed on her face.

"Holy crap there's a bug on your face!" She yelled at him watching in horrified fascination as a bug crawled around on Shino face before disappearing into his collar. Shino backed away and stood next to Hinata who was sitting in a corner of the room looking really depressed.

"Look we just want to ask you about Naruto, are you going to answer them?" Sakura asked looking somewhat frustrated.

"Maybe, it depends on what you ask me. So what do you want to know?"

"Well… what exactly is your…………"

-------------

"……relationship with Umiko?" Naruto blinked and then looked at Neji in surprise before anger crowded onto his face.

"The hell?! You break into my apartment at eight in the morning, knock me out, tie me up with chains, CHAINS, and bring me to some random training field in my pajamas only to ask me that!" Naruto yelled in anger not really noticing how loud his voice was, Neji sighed.

"Just answer the question Naruto or else we'll just leave you here." Naruto glared at them but answered anyway.

"Umiko's like a sister to me, she taught me a lot of things and showed me what it was like to have a family."

"But aren't you two engaged?" Tenten asked.

"Yeah we are what about it?" Naruto asked looking confused.

"Dobe why are you marrying a girl you consider a sister?" Sasuke asked while rolling his eyes.

"Shut it Teme! We didn't exactly get engaged because we wanted to!"

"What does that mean?" Shikamaru asked from where he was lying down.

"We were seven when we made that vow. We said 'when both of us reach our goal then we'll become a real family and share our last names,' because Umiko never knew her last name she wanted to share my last name and I was fine with that but we didn't know that 'sharing' our last names meant getting married." Naruto confessed looking embarrassed. "I only realized it two years ago, and by then there was nothing we could do about it."

"Why didn't you go looking for her?" Tenten asked curious and Naruto looked away.

"I wasn't allowed to leave the village at that time." He answered while looking down.

"How come Umiko doesn't……"

------------------------------

"……………have a last name?" Ino asked her and Umiko sighed.

"My mother told me that my otou-san died before I was born and my mother never told me his name."

"So why didn't she just tell you hers?" Sakura asked looking confused and Umiko shared her look.

"I don't know, my mother died when I was five and I can't remember once when she told me her last name… in fact I can't even remember her real name, I only remember her as my mother."

"That's kind of weird." Choji muttered and Shino nodded.

"Well then, do you……………"

------------------------------------

"……………love Umiko?" Tenten asked. Naruto blushed and looked away.

"Why would you want to know that?" He asked looking really embarrassed.

"Well if you're getting married to her then you have to love her right?"

"Well I'm not sure… I mean I do consider her as my nee-chan and I will always do whatever I can to help her but I'm not sure if that's what you would call love." Tenten thought about what Naruto had told them before answering.

"Think about Sakura and then think about Umiko. Imagine both are in danger but in different parts of Konoha, who would you go to first?" Naruto was silent for a long time before answering.

"I would go to Umiko first."

"There that proves you love Umiko; or if not, it means that you're getting there." Tenten said with a triumphant smile.

"Yes Naruto-kun you and Umiko both shine youthfully with love!" Lee yelled out with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Umm thanks?"

"Naruto is there a time limit to your vow?" Shikamaru asked looking very serious.

"A time limit, what do you mean?"

"I read in a book about chakra vows, they sound similar to this 'unbreakable vow' thing that you and Umiko did but the book states that because the vows are made with chakra they have a set time limit to complete the vow before the chakra kills them. Does the unbreakable vow have a time limit?"

"I don't think there…………"

--------------------------------------------

"…………is one."

"What do you mean there is one?" Sakura asked looking stunned.

"You asked if there was a time limit and I told you there is one. I haven't told Naruto yet because I don't want him to worry." Umiko replied.

"How long is this time limit?" Shino asked.

"Three years after one of the participants complete their part of the vow. So I have about two years and a half left."

"Will Na-Naruto die if you don't c-complete the vow?" Hinata asked worriedly and Umiko gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'm about ninety percent sure that he won't die if I don't complete the vow in time."

"Why only ninety percent, shouldn't it either a yes or a no?" Sakura asked confused.

"Well it depends on what you say when you make the vow. In our case there are actually two parts to our vow. The first part is to 'reach our goals' and the second is to 'share our names' both parts need to be completed to finish the vow. As things are right now, I'm ninety percent sure that he'll not die if I don't finish in time."

"That still doesn't explain why you're ninety percent sure that he'll live." Choji pointed out.

"Ah well I don't really want to tell anybody until I'm a hundred percent sure and I want to tell Naruto first so you're not going to learn anything from me."

"Okay, then what about your goal? I heard from Tenten that you want to open a circus here in Konoha how long do you think that's going to take?" Sakura asked.

"A while, the first thing I need to do is find performers which shouldn't be too hard since there are a lot of people here who have failed from the ninja academy and with some training they would make great performers. The second thing I need to do is find a place where I can perform. In Konoha there are a lot of empty plots of land where I could perform but the problem is that there are so many safety regulations and drills that opening up a circus in certain places could screw everything up. I don't really have to worry about that right now, instead I should be focusing on getting supplies to make the props for the performances and spreading the word about myself."

"It sounds like you thought this through." Choji told Umiko.

"Well of course! My dream is to be the best trapeze artist out there! But, I also want to create a stage were anybody could forget their worries even if for just a moment."

"W-why do you w-want to be a trapeze ar-artist so bad? You're v-very good with the diabolo." Hinata asked.

"That's a hard question to answer." Umiko replied with a sigh.

"How so?" Choji asked while opening another bag of chips.

"My mother loved the water but not just the water the entire ocean as well. She would often tell me stories about the sea and would describe in detail her memories of the sea. She loved it so much she even named me after it. 'Umi' means ocean and 'ko' means child, my mother named me 'ocean child' and that just proved how much she loved the sea. For a time I loved the water as much as my mother did but that changed when I saw my mother drown….. After that I didn't like the water anymore, it felt suffocating and heavy. I wanted to escape from it, to get as far away from it that I could, so I started to look toward the sky instead of the sea and I decided that I wanted to fly instead of swim. Which is why I want to be a trapeze artist so bad, to fling myself through the air without the fear of ever falling, even if it was for a brief moment I felt as if I was truly flying." Umiko said with a small smile.

"Go-gomen…" Hinata whispered while looking down.

"For what? You asked me a question and I answered so why are you apologizing?" Umiko asked while tilting her head to the side.

"Be because your m-mother…"

"That happened a long time ago and while I might not be the completely over it, it doesn't hurt as much anymore." Umiko reassured Hinata with a small smile before an annoyed look crossed her face. "But if you really want to show how sorry you are can you do something for me?"

"What?"

"UNTIE ME GOD DAMN IT!" she yelled, struggling against her bonds.

"Not until you answer every single one of our questions!" Ino yelled back at her and Umiko growled.

"GRAAAAAAH! I don't have time for this I finally got an interview and I'm going to be late if you keep me here!" Umiko yelled while struggling against her binds.

"A interview for what?" Shino asked.

"A part time job, unlike you guys I'm living on my own, which means that I have to pay for everything by myself, I need to get a job or else I'll wind up sleeping on the streets!" Umiko glared at them while they exchanged guilty looks.

"We still have questions for you." Sakura told Umiko looking a little guilty and Umiko rolled her eyes.

"Look I really need to get to that interview I'll answer whatever questions you have later, just let me go already."

"Do you promise that you'll answer our questions?" Ino asked and Umiko sighed.

"Yeah I promise, now let me go!"

"Fine but we are going to hold you to that promise." Sakura said while cutting Umiko free from the ropes that had been holding her down. Umiko jumped to her feet and rubbed her sore wrist before looking at them.

"Where's my bag?" Shino tossed her, her bag and Umiko nodded at him. She turned around and walked through the door without turning around.

-----------------

"Are you sure that there's no time limit to the unbreakable vow?" Shikamaru asked again and Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, Umiko never said anything about a time limit, so I guess there isn't one." Naruto responded. Shikamaru sighed before looking toward the rest of the group.

"Well that's all we needed to know so I'm going to leave now, Choji is probably waiting for me already." Shikamaru said before getting up and leaving.

"This was stupid see you later dobe." Sasuke said to Naruto while walking toward the Uchiha complex.

"Ah, we must be going as well Guy-sensei said that he had a special training exercise he wanted us to do. Come my youthful rival let us race and see who can reach Guy-sensei first!" With that said Lee went of racing toward their training grounds while Tenten and Neji followed slowly behind.

"Come on Akamaru sis said that she was going to teach us a new move." Kiba said to Akamaru who barked excitedly and followed his master as they left the training field. Naruto sat there for a few moments wondering why he felt like they forgot something before it clicked in his mind.

"OI GUYS, UNTIE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


	11. Maids and Missions

**Chapter 11**

**Maids and Missions**

Umiko sat down with a sigh. She had made it to her interview just on time and to her great relief she had gotten the job. She was really glad that her employers were a young married couple who had just arrived in Konoha, what was even better was that they came from the far west and knew many of the customs and traditions that Umiko had picked up during her travels there. _Still, of all things, why did they have to open a cos-play café?_ Umiko thought to herself as she gloomily picked at her new 'uniform'.

_**Well it could be worse.**_ Umiko stiffened as she heard its voice before growling.

_Shut up it's was the only job I could find. Why are you talking to me anyway? I thought I made it clear that I don't want your help._ She hissed at it, but grew slightly uneasy when it didn't respond to her.

_**You haven't told him the truth yet.**_ Umiko flinched but held her head up defiantly.

_I'm still not entirely sure if he's even related to me, and with the whole Kyuubi thing, most of his personal info is locked away and buried behind miles of red tape. I won't be able to get any concrete evidence for a while._ Umiko replied with a soft sigh.

_**We told you blood calls to blood, what else do you need to prove that he is your kin?**_ Umiko glared at the wall before answering.

_Even if I know that's true, it doesn't mean that everyone around me will believe it too. Or do you expect everyone to accept the word of a voice only I can hear?_ Umiko told it sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

_**We do not care if the village doesn't accept it, only if Naruto knows what danger he's in by being in this family. If you don't tell him the truth soon then we'll do it for you.**_ Umiko sat up in alarm while her face held a look of disbelief.

_You could do that?_ she asked looking worried.

_**Yes We can, but attempting to communicate with one of the unchosen will result in either great pain, or discomfort of the human.**_ Umiko felt her unease grow and carefully thought out what it had told her before letting out a defeated sigh.

_I'll tell him, but I won't do it right away… I'm not ready to face him yet… _She felt the presence

change and it almost felt comforting.

_**That is all we want. You have two months time, then we shall take matters into our own hands. **_Umiko sighed before nodding her head, she was glad when the presence left her mind. She stared at her small room and wondered what Naruto's reaction would be when she did tell him the truth before her eye settled on her uniform and shuddered.

_Kami, is this uniform embarrassing. I hope that no one I know ever see me in it._

_--------------_

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke had just finished training and were now taking a small break before they decided where they were going to eat lunch. Naruto had originally been super-pissed at Sasuke when he had first shown up for training due to the fact that Sasuke had left him tied up in the training grounds in chains. It had taken him hours to get out of his bonds and by the time he did he was too tired to do anything else. But his anger had been bled away from him as the two of them sparred, he also noticed that Sakura hadn't insulted him as much as she normally did, and kept looking at him worriedly.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei lets go get ramen!" Naruto said enthusiastically while turning a hopeful eye to Kakashi who was standing nearby his face hidden by his favorite book.

"No way, I'm not eating ramen again!" Sakura yelled from where she was sitting down her eyes flashing dangerously, still Naruto couldn't help but whine.

"But Sakura-chaaaan!" Sakura threw a murderous glare at him and he shut up.

"Well then, where do you suggest we go to Sakura?" Kakashi asked his voice slightly muffled by his book and Sasuke looked as if he didn't care at all.

"Well I heard from Ino that there's this new café that just opened up. I heard that it's really interesting." Kakashi nodded before asking.

"That sounds good, does anyone have any complaints?"

"I..."

"Anyone besides Naruto?" Kakashi asked ignoring Naruto. When his other two students shook their heads he smiled before nodding. "Alright it's settled then we're going to this new café, Sakura can you lead the way?" Sakura smiled before nodding eagerly as she stood up and lead them to the café.

Naruto sighed to himself as he watched his team. Sakura had grabbed Sasuke's arm and was tugging him forward while she chatted excitedly about the new café. Sasuke looked as if he didn't care but he didn't try to pull out of Sakura touch and Kakashi was walking close behind him while chuckling about something he read in his book. Naruto grumbled to himself about not getting his ramen but he wasn't really all that upset about it. When they got to the café they all stopped and stared.

They noticed right away that this place was different from other place, that the building was different from the ones around it. Most buildings in Konoha were either shaped as simple rectangles with flat or rounded tops, but this building was different. Even though it was the same size as a standard two story building the way the windows were spaced made it seem bigger, also its roof was slanted to a point. It was also made out of bricks instead of the average wood that all the other buildings were made out of, and there were flowers growing beneath each window in a small white box.

"This place looks kind of weird." Sakura said in a curious voice, Sasuke and Naruto both agreed but Kakashi just hummed.

"It's a western style home. I guess this place was built specifically for whoever owns the café since it's cheaper to build things out of wood here in Konoha."

"You've seen this kind of building before Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked curious and Kakashi nodded.

"I saw them in a mission to the far west." Kakashi answered. "Well then shall we go in?" he asked before pushing the door open which made a small ringing sound.

"Yookoso to Eri-san, special cos-play café." A cheerful and strangely familiar voiced chimed out and Naruto looked up only to gasp in shock as he came face to face with Umiko.

Naruto knew that his life living as a ninja often lead to many surprises but at the moment he couldn't think of a time that surprised him more than right now. In the café he and his team were going to eat lunch at he found his fiancée and nee-chan wearing an outfit he had never seen before. Her hair which was normally tied up was left down and fell in soft curls down her back and on her head she wore a headband of black cotton framed by white lace. A large black bow rested just below her throat holding into place a piece of white cloth with lace that was made to wrapped neatly around her throat and her shoulders like a collar and was sown to make small rumples around the edges of the lace. Underneath that was a white dress that stopped just above her knees. It had long sleeves that were held in place by lace cuffs halfway down her forearms with a black ribbon before loosening out to wide open sleeves that stopped at her hands. The top was tight fitting and showed off her growing chest but the bottom flared out and overlapped itself and was framed by white lace. Over the dress was back apron like thing that wrapped around her stomach ending just below her chest and strung with a white ribbon that crisscross over itself, two straps of it looped upward and stuck over her shoulders like small wings with white lace framing around it. It also extended a black cloth that layer over the bottom of her dress stopping a few inches short of the bottom, but was divided in the middle allowing the white dress underneath to be seen, the apron was tied in the back making another bow. She also wore black shiny shoes with small heels in them and long white socks that stopped right below her knee and was topped with lace; she also wore a pair of small white wings on her back. All in all she looked really cute.

Both Umiko and Naruto stood frozen in front of each other. Umiko had a huge blush on her face and Naruto couldn't help but think that it made her look even cuter. Naruto wasn't sure how long he would have stood there just staring at Umiko, but Sasuke broke him out of his trance.

"Oi, Dobe aren't you going to sit down, or do you want to stand the whole time?" Naruto snapped out of it and growled at Sasuke.

"Shut it Teme!" He retorted before stomping over and sitting down with the rest of his team. As soon as he did Umiko walked over with a strange smile on her face.

"I didn't know you would be here today Naruto." Naruto felt a shiver travel up his spine but he wasn't entirely too sure why.

"Neither did I, I wanted to go get ramen but Sakura-chan forced me to come here instead." He replied with a large smile trying to hide his blush from Umiko.

"I didn't know you worked here Umiko-san." Sakura gushed as she stared enviously at Umiko outfit and Umiko returned the smile even if her seemed sort of strained.

"Yeah well this is what that interview was for. I just really glad I was even able to get a job; you wouldn't believe how many people turn me down because I'm only twelve." Umiko replied while rolling her eyes.

"Oh that's right you need to be at least eighteen to get a job, if you're not a shinobi or running a family business. How did you get a job anyway?" Sakura asked looking curious.

"Well for us civilians we were supposed to go to school from the age of five up till the age of eighteen when we will either continue on to college for a higher education or we go straight into the work force as either an apprentice for a master of a certain trade or as a heir to the family business. But I left when I was seven and traveled with a circus group back to my parents home town where I stayed for a year or so looking up partially destroyed documents. After that I traveled around with another circus until I felt Naruto promise and I return here. I guess normally I would have to go back to school but since I was away from Konoha for so long I don't register on its system anymore meaning that I didn't have to go back and since I was use to life on the road and making my own living I decided on finding a job instead." Umiko explain with a thoughtful look on her face as if she herself was just realizing all of this. "As nice as it is talking to you I am on the hour and I have to get back to work so here are your menus and I check back on you in a few minutes to get your order." With that said Umiko walked away to greet another couple who had just walked into the café.

"Well this place is certainly interesting." Kakashi said with a chuckle as he scanned the room. There were two other waitresses who wore a similar outfit as Umiko's, but the difference was that one was wearing cat ears and tail while the other was wearing some kind of butterfly wings.

"I wonder why they are all dressed as different animals." Sakura asked and nearly fell out of her chair when a voice answered behind her.

"That my dear is because this is cos-play!" Said a happy looking woman with brown hair and green eyes, who was also wearing the same outfit as Umiko but she was also wearing bat wings and horns. Everyone looked startled except Kakashi who looked like he just found heaven on earth.

"Ano… who are you?" Sakura asked after she got over her shock her shock. The women smiled.

"I'm Sawaki Haruhi I'm the co-owner of this café with my husband Sawaki Takeshi." She answered with a blinding grin.

"What did you mean by cos-play?" Kakashi asked his eye crinkling into his smile and she smiled back.

"Cos-play is actually two words, the 'cos' stands for costume and 'play' just means play. So when someone cos-plays what they are really during is having fun while playing in a costume." She explained before turning to Naruto.

"Hey you're Uzumaki Naruto right?" She asked with a sly grin and Naruto nodded uncertainly. She let out a large squeal before hugging him tightly.

"I heard all about you! How you saved the land of waves and brought hope back to them and how you saved this village by beating that bakemono before it could destroy the village! I even heard how you're engaged with my little employee Umiko-chan!" Naruto nearly choked on his own spit before Umiko ran over a pulled her boss off of him.

"Sawaki-san what are you doing?!" Umiko asked blushing beet red in embarrassment and Haruhi smiled at her.

"I'm just checking out your fiancée. I need to make sure he's good enough for you now that you started working for me, you're like the daughter I never had! So I'm not just going to let you go to just any old random guy, promises or not!" Umiko looked stunned before she turned ten shades of red.

"Sawaki-san, we only just met yesterday! Besides you're only twenty-one you have plenty of time to have a child of your own!" Umiko told Haruhi while trying to stop her boss's melodramatic rantings.

"Oh, but you're just soooooo kawaii!" Haruhi cried out before turning around and hugging Umiko, burying Umiko face into her chest. "I mean really! Not many people here has red hair like you do and even if they did they wouldn't have such a vibrant flaming red like yours! And your eyes are so cute, all big and mysterious! Your eyes are an amazing deep blue that make it like looking into the ocean and all of its mysteries!" While Haruhi was saying this Umiko was failing around trying desperately to get away from her boss. Naruto was just about to stand and go help her when a man came up and pulled Haruhi away from Umiko.

"Haru-chan I know you like cute things but Umiko-san has to work and so do you remember?" He said in a slight teasing face while Umiko made her escape by running behind the counter. Haruhi pouted before grinning.

"Alright Anata I'll be good now, but don't expect to get any sleep tonight." Haruhi purred into his ear loudly causing her husband to blush and Kakashi to giggle. Naruto sighed before he noticed that Kakashi had taken off his headband and his eyes narrowed.

"Kakashi-sensei how long has your headband been off?" Naruto asked in a dangerous voice catching the attention of his two other teammates.

"Hmm… Since Haruhi-san hugged you." Kakashi answered not really caring how his student reacted to the news.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!" Naruto roared as he jumped over the table in an attempt to attack his sensei. This caused the whole room to fall into chaos but strangely enough this just made everyone laugh and join in the chaos. The rest of the day was spent playing and creating havoc until the shop closed and everyone was forced to go home.

---------------

A few weeks had passed since they found out Umiko was working in the cos-play café and it was practically habit to visit her there now before or after practice. Naruto really liked seeing her in uniform even if he wasn't entirely too sure why, a part of him really hoped he wasn't turning into a pervert while the other was planning every way possible to stop Jaraiya from going there himself. If Kakashi had acted that badly when they went he didn't want to see what a super-pervert like Jaraiya would do. Still Naruto had noticed that with each passing day Umiko would look more and more nervous in his presence and he just couldn't figure out why.

"Ohayo Sakura-chan! Ohayo Teme." Naruto called out as he greeted his teammates and received vague responses from both of them and he smiled. A few hours passed and Naruto got bored.

"What are we doing today?" He asked while looking at Sakura.

"Don't you remember? Kakashi-sensei said he got a mission for us and from what I heard it's going to be another C-rank." Sakura told him and both Naruto and Sasuke perked up at this. They hadn't gotten another C-rank since the Land of Wave's incident. Naruto didn't count the A-rank he got when he was asked to go after Gaara and Sasuke because they were being invaded and anyone could have been picked to go on that one.

"I wonder what we are going to do. Are we going to escort someone again? Do you think it'll be a princess?" Naruto asked excitedly already bouncing on his toes and Sasuke shot him an annoyed glare.

"We'll just have to see about that won't we?" Kakashi said as he appeared behind Naruto.

"Kakashi-sensei what's our mission, what's our mission, what's our mission?" Naruto asked his eyes turning to Kakashi with a large smile.

"We have to go to the Hokage tower to figure that one out Naruto." Kakashi answered while trying to get his hyperactive student to calm down and it worked. For about a second.

"Let's go! I don't want anybody else getting in on this mission besides us!" Naruto yelled as he raced

off leaving his team mates behind. Kakashi chuckled before looking at his other two students.

"Well lets go shall we?" He asked as he started walking in the same direction Naruto had run off to with Sasuke and Sakura following behind him.

"You just want us to deliver some stupid scroll baa-chan?" Naruto asked disappointment showing on his face.

"Yes you damn brat, but that scroll is very important, it holds all of our terms to create a peace treaty with Sunagakure and we can't afford to lose it." Tsunade explained to Naruto while resisting the urge to throw something at him. She had already got him with the paper weight; she didn't want to risk giving him a concussion.

"So we're traveling to Suna?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, it's a three day trip to get to the border to Suna, and another four days to reach Sunagakure. You'll be staying there until they have a reply ready so the minimal time to finish this mission is fourteen days. You'll need to pack for fourteen days and for surviving in the desert." Tsunade told Sakura who nodded.

"When do we leave?" Sasuke asked.

"In three hours. You guys better be out of that gate before the three hours are over or else you'll be dealing with me." Tsunade threaten keeping her eyes on Kakashi who merely shrugged.

"You guys are dismissed, go and pack." Kakashi told his team who nodded and walked out of the room.

Naruto was a bit disappointed with the mission but was still excited. This would be the second time that he got out of the village and he was going to be gone for a long time, he would need someone to look after his plants for him. Naruto stopped and then smiled before running off to a certain café.

"Naruto-kun welcome back!" Haruhi said with a large smile and Naruto found himself smiling as well.

"Do you know where Umiko-chan is?" he asked bouncing on his toes.

"Sure she's in the back taking out garbage; you can go see her if you like." He nodded quickly before slipping past Haruhi and heading to the back. He ran into Umiko as she was making her way back inside and gave her a large grin.

"Umiko-chan my team just got a mission and I have to leave for the next fourteen days or so, so can you look after my apartment?" He asked her and watched her eyes grow large before asking.

"Nani?" He smiled and explained it to her again.

"Well you see our team just got a mission to head to Suna to deliver a peace treaty, so we're going to be gone for the next two weeks and I need someone to look after my apartment and all my plants." She watched as understanding appeared on her face before nodding.

"Here's the key to my apartment and uh…" Naruto blushed before blurting out "You can live there if you like." Umiko looked shocked before saying.

"What?" Naruto blushed before replying.

"Well you know how you're living in that dingy hotel room right? Well I don't like the thought of you living there so you can live in my apartment; even if it's not much better I would rather you stayed there." Umiko gave him an odd look before asking.

"If I live in your apartment what would happen when you came back?"

"We could live there together. It might be a bit small but I think we can do it." Naruto said with a smile and Umiko smiled back at him.

"Then prepare for your room to be clean by the time you get back! I swear I don't know how your plants could be living in such a bad environment." She teased as she accepted the key from him before frowning.

"When are you leaving?"

"In about three hours." He answered and Umiko frowned deepened.

"Go, you better go pack." She told him and he nodded before rushing out of the shop. Three hours later he was standing by the gate with Sakura and Sasuke waiting for their late sensei. There was a poof of smoke and Kakashi appeared.

"You're on time for once." Sakura said looking stunned.

"Maa… Tsunade-sama threatened to destroy all of my Icha Icha books if I didn't show up on time." Kakashi admitted with a sheepish smile. Everyone rolled their eye but Naruto grinned.

"Well then, let's go!" He was about to walk through the gate when a voice called him back.

"Naruto wait!" He turned around and saw Umiko running up to him.

"What's up Umiko?" He asked glad that she had come to see him off.

"I wanted to give you this." Umiko said while holding out a necklace. The necklace was made out of simple string but it was the pendent that caught his attention. The stone was a simple tear drop shape and was a clear blue. Her took a hold of it and to his surprise it was cold to the touch.

"What's this?" He asked.

"A good luck charm. I have a feeling that something bad is about to happen, so please wear this." Umiko asked him with a pleading look and he caved. He slipped the necklace on and smiled at her.

"I'll wears it always." And Umiko smiled.

"Thanks, now go before you're late." Umiko said with a small smile and shoo him away. Naruto turned around and ran back to his teammate but he looked around and waved her good bye. When he caught up to his teammates he noticed that everyone was giving him an odd look and Sakura was blushing.

"What?" He asked looking confused.

"You guys are just so sweet!" Sakura gushed while smiling a huge smile.

"What!? No were not!" Naruto protested trying to stop the blush from showing.

"Yes you are! She even gave you a necklace!" Sakura shot back at Naruto with a large grin on her face. They spent the rest of the day arguing on how sweet Naruto and Umiko relationship was.

Translations:

Bakemono= monster

Anata= you (or in this case dear, please note only married women can call their husband this)


End file.
